How to find sources of boarding school financial assistance

As most boarding schools offer the same grade levels in education as would the public school system, it is unusual for anyone to seek boarding school financial assistance.

The normal pursuit is to file applications for grants or loans for college tuition, but there are sources available for parents wishing to enroll their children in a private boarding school, with most of them coming from the schools themselves.

 

Because the majority of boarding schools do not receive the same amount of government funding as public schools would, they depend primarily on donations from area philanthropists and generations of graduates for additional monies.

Their budget is dependent upon tuition fees, so if a family’s needs are such that they will need help finding boarding school scholarships, or boarding school grants, the admissions office should be able to give the parents assistance in applying for one of the three typical means of paying tuition: scholarships, vouchers and payment plans.

Boarding school financial assistance plans

Most boarding schools in the United States have one or two programs in place to help parents cover their children’s tuition every year. These programs, usually in the form of a voucher system of payment, or a deferred payment plan, ensure that the children have a place in the school, which will last as long as the tuition is eventually paid.

This system allows children from lower economic areas to attend, and has made getting that quality education more possible for students that normally would have just gotten by in a public school system.

The voucher plan allows families to apply for special vouchers from the state government in lieu of receiving a tax return from overpaying their yearly taxes through payroll deductions.

They can then use these vouchers to pay for their child’s tuition at a participating boarding school, and the school gets the monies back from the state, dollar for dollar.

Not all states back this kind of educational funding, and parents would have to be resident in a state that has a program to request the vouchers.

A deferred payment plan allows parents to enroll their children along with everyone else at the beginning of the school year, and make an initial payment of at least 15% of the year’s tuition.

Over the rest of the school year, the parents can make payments to the school to cover the rest of the debt. Some schools allow for payments beyond graduating into the next term, and will have strict guidelines over how often the payments need to be made.

Scholarships and grants

Scholarships are available for private boarding schools, and will either come from the school themselves, or from a donor organization or member. Some states also offer grants for tuition in private boarding schools, as long as the parents are full-time residents of the state where the school is located.

Independent scholarships are prizes from an educational competition or contest, and school scholarships are of the merit type for outstanding grades, athletics or other achievements.

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