Advice needed on anyone who qualified for a bursary please!

Independent Schools as an alternative to Grammar

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Roz12
Posts: 118
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2011 10:45 pm

Advice needed on anyone who qualified for a bursary please!

Post by Roz12 »

Hi

Im anxious about applying for a bursary but cannot afford an Indie unless I qualify. My issue is low net income abut high savings but no assets. Will I qualify? Surely they don't discriminate against savings is deposit towards a house which I've been tirelessly saving for for years.

Advice appreciated!
hermanmunster
Posts: 12815
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:51 am
Location: The Seaside

Re: Advice needed on anyone who qualified for a bursary plea

Post by hermanmunster »

It varies hugely what indies count when assessing income for a bursary - so depends which school you are looking at.

There are always grumbles at schools when someone appears to have an affluent lifestyle, big house and fancy hols..and a big bursary too - so some schools have started looking at more than income.

i looked at bursaries for funding overseas universities and found that they had formulae based on income / dependants / age (ie how long parents could be earning for) / value of property / loans on the property / savings (quite big allowances made) / other property / business value etc etc

Don't think UK schools go this far yet ! but they do all have variations... maybe if you name the schools you are interested or have a chat with the bursar of the school you will get more info
Roz12
Posts: 118
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2011 10:45 pm

Re: Advice needed on anyone who qualified for a bursary plea

Post by Roz12 »

Hi

Thanks I am looking Indies in Croydon (WHGIFT FOUNDATION) and also JAGS in Dulwich but not comfortable asking the bursars directly. I think Im just anxious I have high savings but definitively qualify regarding income.

ANy more advice from people who have done applications before be useful.

Thanks
loveyouradvice
Posts: 160
Joined: Mon Nov 28, 2011 1:24 pm

Re: Advice needed on anyone who qualified for a bursary plea

Post by loveyouradvice »

Ask them... we were ina similar position to you.... they all have very different criteria and most are spelt out on their websites.... we found the only one we'd qualify for was a school we didnt really want... but we have house plus savings (ISAs rather than a pension which we dont have)
Kingfisher
Posts: 416
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 7:08 pm

Re: Advice needed on anyone who qualified for a bursary plea

Post by Kingfisher »

Roz12 wrote: not comfortable asking the bursars directly. I think Im just anxious I have high savings but definitively qualify regarding income.

ANy more advice from people who have done applications before be useful.
We can't know. I had to ring the bursary at my school several times for clarification and they were very helpful. There's no point burying your head in the sand; you will have to show evidence of everything anyway. If you ask, you can move forward with secure knowledge rather than speculative. Then you can make a decision. At the moment,you are worried and anxious which is not helpful.
nonethewiser
Posts: 54
Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2011 3:52 am

Re: Advice needed on anyone who qualified for a bursary plea

Post by nonethewiser »

Hi, I would echo the others and advise contacting the bursars of the schools you are interested in. They are very used to queries like these and I am sure would be happy to explain their criteria. They could send you an example of their bursary forms. I do know SPGS has theirs on their website. Don't contact them in the next couple of days though - they are likely to be swamped!

In our case, the questionaires were very thorough - they need last 3 months bank statements, interests from investments, any tax credits (including child benefits), any other income from children (I would assume this would mean other bursaries/grants), mortgage, rental. The whole she-bang. Even water rates and council tax rates. But filling form after form, I can say different schools ask for different things.

The only other thing I would say is bursaries are increasingly very competitive to get. They only have a handful (some places only 3!) and firstly, to get one, DC need to rank quite highly to qualify for one and how much would depend on your income.

The hard lesson I had to learn is even though DD qualified for a place and our income qualifies us for some help, there were others who were higher up in ranking and we are on waiting list for a bursary. It is hard to tell DD she had done very well to get a place yet we can't send her because the bursary didn't work out. She was happy after I fed her some lasagne and profiteroles though.
tigger2
Posts: 755
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:35 am

Re: Advice needed on anyone who qualified for a bursary plea

Post by tigger2 »

So very difficult to talk about but I can only say contact them now and just ask...sooner or later you will have to make an application and declare it all anyway... There is definitely a difference from school to school. We have had to supply everything down to the gas bill for one application but nothing at all evidence wise for another so I advise to take a deep breath and pick up the phone!

I agree with nonethewiser...it is very hard to have an offer letter but have to tell your dc that the bursary application was unsuccessful. Had to do that with dd a couple of months back and it was horrible but there is no way round it...agree that pasta helps..that and a good movie !
nonethewiser
Posts: 54
Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2011 3:52 am

Re: Advice needed on anyone who qualified for a bursary plea

Post by nonethewiser »

tigger2, it's good to know I am not alone. I felt like bad mum for a moment, making DD go through all the tests & interviews only to fall at the last hurdle. It's catch-22 really - you can only qualify for bursary by getting a place.

Only silver lining to console myself is that DD would have to learn to cope with disappointment sooner or later, as much as we want to protect them.

Also OP, the other thing you need to factor in is we still need to pay the registration fees even when applying for a bursary place. Some places like SPGS is free application and others have a reduced rate but most tend to ask for full registration fees. Something to budget for if you want to blanket bomb a few schools for bursary places :D
cyandburb
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2012 4:14 pm

Re: Advice needed on anyone who qualified for a bursary plea

Post by cyandburb »

Hi we applied very late as it hadn't occurred to us, infact I dropped the first, (very in-depth) forms off about a week late! The forms were very specific and took in to account every bit of our financial situation, which is pretty complex tbh and took a good few hours to compile all the information.
These initial forms were followed up by an interview with the bursars team which was a lot less scary that I expected, but gave nothing away! I was completely honest about our assets which I though on paper didn't look great (we have some rental properties), however, they took on board that in current climate it was pointless to sell and that also we desperately needed the income from them at the moment just to survive. They were interested also in what cars we drove, holidays (none!) and income from trust funds ( :lol: ???). As we run our own business they also wanted to talk about business accounts and future plans. It was quite intrusive and if I am honest a little embarrassing, however, we have been offered a generous bursary (way more than we could have hoped for) and I am so pleased/grateful/relieved with the result!
I think that that if you are honest about your savings and can explain what they are for etc they are more likely to take a sympathetic view, families financial situations can be very complex and I should imagine very few fit the stereotype of single parent on a low income... it is the bursars job to make a recommendation using the information they are given.
Good luck and from my experience the bursar was very human! :D
BusyQueenBee
Posts: 102
Joined: Sat Dec 17, 2011 1:02 pm

Re: Advice needed on anyone who qualified for a bursary plea

Post by BusyQueenBee »

Be aware that in most of the forms your savings in ALL bank accounts are added to your property and valuables inside the home and it all adds to a total of "assets". So your savings are counted as assets as much as an expensive car. You then have to explain in the form why those assets cannot be used to pay school fees. Unless you can really prove, and maybe you can, that you need to keep those savings for something other than university fees, "just in case", fun extras, retirement, etc...They will count against you. If you were living off your savings, i.e. unemployed or unable to work at the moment, I think they would definetely understand.

And finally, their flexibility will largely depend on how much they want your child.
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