The Foreign Service Journal, June 2016

84 JUNE 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT ing that a student’s financial need is not considered when an admission decision is made. It is easy to assume this would be the same at boarding schools—many of which look like college campuses—but that would be a mistake. Most boarding schools are “need-aware,” and if you do apply for financial aid, that will be taken into account when deciding whether to admit your child or not. In fact, I discovered that many boarding schools provide no financial aid whatsoever to 75 percent of their students. Several people outside of the Foreign Service I spoke with said that they purposely did not apply for aid so as to improve their child’s chance for admis- sion. Given this, Foreign Service families posted in locations with large education allowances or with children who qualify for SNEA funds have an advantage, because these may be sufficient to cover all of the school’s fees. For us, applying for financial aid was a necessity because no education allow- ance is paid while on temporary duty at the Foreign Service Institute. I did, however, make it clear in the application process—both verbally and in writing— that we would have a larger educational allowance the next year (when posted in Beijing). I am not sure if this helped, but it definitely didn’t hurt. Financial Aid Does Exist Regardless of “need-aware” admis- sions, do not assume you will not get financial aid! Many schools have huge endowments, and every school admis- sions office we spoke with talked about attracting more students with a “global perspective.” As already mentioned, many schools offer financial aid to up to 25 percent of students; and, on average, that assistance amounts to about 75 percent of Regardless of “need-aware” admissions, do not assume you will not get financial aid!