Before You Promise to Pay: What an NYC Private School Will Really Cost

The short answer

If a school feels right and the tuition does not, apply for admission and for aid together, on that school's own calendar. Then judge the school by what it would cost you after aid, not by its sticker price. It just keeps the bill from being a surprise.

Run your own arithmetic first. If you can pay in full without strain, you can skip the form. If you cannot, do not assume your salary decides it: NAIS says no income level automatically rules a family out, though each school sets its own policies. It also says admission does not guarantee aid, so compare what each school would actually charge you.

This guide is for New York City day-school families at any entry grade. Boarding, ninth-grade and kindergarten families can go deeper in the guides linked at the end. Dates and fees below were on the schools' and platforms' own pages in early October 2026 for Fall 2027 applications, so confirm them on your school's page before you plan around them.

Aid has its own calendar

The aid application is a separate form from the admission application, and its deadline may not match. Brearley's Clarity application, for example, is due Tuesday, December 1, 2026. Packer's is due Friday, January 8, 2027 for new families, and an application that is incomplete by then will not be considered for an award.

Avenues expects both applications to be filed together in the fall, and says aid cannot be requested after an offer of admission.

Work backwards from the earliest date, and start sooner than feels necessary. The slowest item is usually a signature or a statement that belongs to someone else.

Ask, too, whether requesting aid has any bearing on the admission decision; each school answers for itself.

Who makes the decision

A platform collects your family's information; the school makes the award. ISAAGNY notes that many schools use platforms such as Clarity, SSS or TADS, so ask which one yours uses.

Clarity says it does not give applicants an expected family contribution figure. Each school applies its own formula and budget, so the same family with the same numbers can get different answers from different schools. Finishing a form on any platform is a request, not a promise.

Who files

Start with a list of the adults. Clarity generally expects every living biological parent to apply, even one living in another household. A stepparent, or any other adult in the home who helps care for the children, is listed as a guardian.

Parents who live apart file separate applications, one for each household. SSS asks a parent in a separate household to file separately too; Brearley adds that both households sign the enrollment contract.

Clarity's fee is $65 per household for each school year, unless it is waived. Clarity waives it automatically for families who meet its income and asset criteria; otherwise, ask the school, since not every school grants a waiver. Ravenna's SSS application lists a $60 fee for 2027–28.

What to hand over

Ask each school which tax years and records it wants. Avenues asks for your two most recent completed 1040s, plus an estimate of current-year earnings when prompted. Brearley's Fall 2027 page asks for signed 2025 returns as filed, with W-2s, 1099s and K-1s as they apply.

Business owners and the self-employed should expect to supply business returns; Avenues says so for the self-employed, and Packer includes rental-property owners.

With SSS, an upload is not a finished requirement: the platform reviews each document, which it says typically takes up to three business days, so do not upload on deadline day.

When life does not fit the form

If the other parent is not in your child's life, cannot be found, or raises safety or custody concerns, Clarity's parents and guardians page says to contact Support, which will advise on the right path. Tell the school as well, and do both before anyone contacts the other parent for paperwork.

A fee waiver is not the same as leaving a parent out of the file. Schools handle this differently:

• Brearley offers a waiver form, with documentation, for a parent who has had no involvement for an extended period.
• Packer requires every custodial and non-custodial parent to apply unless sole legal financial responsibility is documented.
• Avenues says it considers both natural parents' finances even if only one favors the school.

A return records last year, not this one. If your income has changed since the year it covers, say so, with dates, and ask the aid office what it wants to see.

The enrollment year on one page

Fill this in for each school as offers arrive. The table compares the enrollment year’s cost. Application and platform fees already paid sit on a memo line, outside that total. With round numbers, a $55,000 tuition with $8,000 of extras you will really use costs more than a $60,000 tuition that already includes them. ISAAGNY says aid decisions generally come with, or soon after, admission decisions.

Ask each school what the award covers: tuition only, or some of the line 2 extras as well. Enter the grant once, on line 4, so it is never subtracted twice.

Then ask a separate cash-flow question: what deposit is due, when, and on what installment schedule? Those are payments toward the cost in line 5, not additions to it, so they stay out of the table. A payment schedule is a calendar, not a discount. It changes when money leaves your account; it does not close a funding gap. If you have already paid a credited deposit, subtract that payment when working out the balance still due.

Line 5 is a first-year number, not a forecast, which is why line 6 exists.

If the award falls short

Decide your ceiling before the letter arrives, so the letter cannot decide it for you. Then read the letter for two numbers: what the school is giving and what it expects from you.

If it falls short, ask promptly, through the school's own channel, how reconsideration works. Avenues is one school's example of how narrow it can be: it will consider an appeal only on new information that was not previously known, backed by a monthly budget, a letter and records.

Other schools set their own terms. Ask whether the reply date moves while they review the request, and treat the date as fixed until the school says otherwise in writing.

Before you sign, and next year

Read the enrollment contract slowly, with the award letter beside it. Ask the school, in writing, what you would owe if you withdrew, and whether the aid office wants to hear about a change before the school year starts.

Enrolling without aid can restrict a later request, and the rules differ. Avenues generally asks families who enroll without an award to wait three years before applying, unless a sibling is joining. It strongly recommends against enrolling if you cannot afford full tuition for the remaining years. Packer expects a family that enrolls without applying not to seek aid in its first three years, with an exception for a demonstrated significant change. It also asks families to report changes that affect their ability to pay.

Expect an annual aid application. New awards reflect financial changes and tuition adjustments; continued support is not guaranteed. Before you sign, ask each school what happened to returning aided families’ contributions over the last few years, and write the answer on line 6.