FIT vs. financial aid
Family Individualized Tuition
Family Individualized Tuition allows families from a broad range of economic circumstances to make a customized financial commitment to Gordon.
To determine a FIT price, families provide a succinct Family Financial Overview once every three years. There is a modest annual tuition increase for all families during the years that they do not submit new financial information.
Family Individualized Tuition has come at a time when independent schools are finding that their decades-old tuition models aren't working and people are looking for an authentic, sustainable alternative. Compare the experiences below:
| with FIT: | with financial aid: | |
|---|---|---|
| Timely answers | Families learn their price within ten days of completing an application, engaging with the FIT portal and interviewing. | Families who apply in the fall do not learn their price until March, at the earliest. The first tuition bill could arrive only weeks after a family has learned their price. |
| Long-term planning | Families know their FIT price for three years, and the prices for additional siblings can be easily and quickly projected. | Families are given a price for one year and must reapply each year. |
| Equity, not negotiation | Every families’ price is calculated by the model. There is no negotiation. Two families with the same financial profile would get the same price. | Schools only fund, on average, 60% of the amount recommended by the financial aid process. The balance is left up to the school's discretion and to the families' ability to negotiate. |
| A transparent system | There is clarity about how prices are determined during the entire journey from Nursery to eighth grade. |
When schools do not fund the full need, as is often the case, there is a lack of clarity about how final prices are determined. |
| One community | All families engage in the same tuition system. Prices are set at each family's maximum level. | There are two systems of tuition pricing, one for “full pay families” and another for those “on financial aid." |
| Respectful billing | Every family at Gordon is billed for their individual FIT price in a process that values their full investment and participation in the Gordon community. | Every family is billed the full tuition, with financial aid then subtracted. |
FIT in the news
Family Individualized Tuition has attracted attention as a model for how schools can rethink the traditional system.