bursaries and scholarship

kosar.irshad · Post by **kosar.irshad** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 2:21 pm

Hi just wondering if anyone has gone down the route of applying for a scholarship and bursary at an independent school and if so, what were the maximum fee reductions. Does a full (or nearly full) fee remission ever exist?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 3:51 pm

Free places do exist. I believe that some schools even discretely give the recipients "pocket money" on school trips so that they won't have less than other children.

However, to get that level of assistance you generally have to have a bursary element (i.e. it will be means tested). I understand that there has been an agreement amongst HMC schools not to offer non-means tested scholarships above 50%. You may be able to get more at these schools by combining scholarships (eg academic and sport) and a few non HMC shools do offer the odd full-fee scholarship anyway.

Bottom line; it varies from school to school so enquire of any in which you are interested. Well-endowed (mainly boys') schools can often do more than "poorer" schools.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 11:07 am

Some school sare very anxiopus topromote theri bursaries - we recently we to an open day @ St Paul's and the were stressing at all points that bursaroes were available for bright boys of low income families.

Ed's mum · Post by **Ed's mum** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 7:34 pm

But how low is low? I have tried to find this info out from one of the schools we are appling to and they are, perhaps rightly, quite cagey about this!!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 10:52 pm

Ed's mum wrote:But how low is low? I have tried to find this info out from one of the schools we are appling to and they are, perhaps rightly, quite cagey about this!!

You need to press them on this because each school you apply to you are having to pay an entrance fee. They can't expect you to make a decision about whether to apply without knowing whether it is a realistic financial choice for you. They should have a chart that shows you how much you would need to contribute if child gets a bursary, although obviously they can't say whether he would get a bursary or not until he has done the exam. There is a big difference between being admitted to the school and being offered money off, except at a very few needs-blind schools, and even they often have a bizarre notion of how much families actually need to live on. The ideal scenario is two parents not working at all and you get it completely free, but if you are more industrious than that it is pretty well bound to impact on your standard of living (in my experience!)

Ed's mum · Post by **Ed's mum** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 10:59 pm

This particular school definitely won't tell us in advance of the submitted finance form, however, they apparently try hard to notify parents quite quickly to give them an idea of what the bursary could be. We officially do not need to pay the school and apply until Jan although they are encouraging parents to do this before Xmas, so maybe we will know an amount before we need to pay the fee...

guest789 · Post by **guest789** » Thu Nov 22, 2007 11:45 am

I've heard that Rugby can be negotiated up to 50%, but 50% of Â£9k in Marshall House and then Â£15K in the Senior School plus all the other, extensive costs could still be prohibitively expensive. Good Luck.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Nov 22, 2007 2:02 pm

My child was given a 50% Scholarship and a further 25% Bursary, Assisted place. We still had to find another sponsor to help with the rest of the fees, travel etc. They origanily asked for Â£250 reg fee, which we did not pay untill we found out what they could offer us and we got the rest in place. They did hold her a place even though they were over subsribed. It took some doing but we got there in the end. The Head was very helpfull.
Our income is 25k

Hope this helps.

She is at the school and loves every second.

Ed's mum · Post by **Ed's mum** » Thu Nov 22, 2007 5:31 pm

GUEST.That was kind of you to be so open about income.
GUEST789 So Rugby can be negotiated up to 50% but not above? It is generous but not enough for us! Is this definite or something you have heard. Feel free to PM me if you want to ...!!

Ed's mum · Post by **Ed's mum** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 11:19 pm

Well, we did hear from Rugby and the bursary we can receive, based on our income, is generous and far exceeds 50% which is great news! Now DS just needs to pass two exams and get through two interviews!!!
Does anyone have any advice re the following...assuming my son does well and could be considered for a place...if it came down to one place being either offered to DS, who requires a big bursary (!), or another child whose parents can actually pay for the place (!), would this be taken into account when choosing which child to offer the place to...?
I think you know what I'm asking...!!
Any advice, experiences gratefully received.