Saint Mary's Financial Aid Program

 

Saint Mary's High School has an established tuition financial assistance program that seeks to help families make a Saint Mary's education possible for their children. All financial assistance is based on demonstrated need; no academic or athletic scholarships are awarded by the school.

 

Saint Mary's coordinates its tuition financial assistance program in cooperation with a number of major funding sources, including the Catholic Tuition Organization of the Diocese of Phoenix ("CTODP"), the Saint Mary's Scholarship and Benefit Fund, the Catholic Community Foundation, the Dougherty Foundation, Arizona Children's Trust, and a host of other organizations and individuals who fund tuition assistance programs to help families with demonstrated need. Saint Mary's takes all known sources of financial assistance into account when allocating funds under its direct control, to assure that as many families as possible are helped and that each family is treated fairly and consistently with other applicants for assistance.

 

 All financial aid is based on "demonstrated need".

Each applicant for financial aid must file a completed Needs Analysis Form with FAIR, an independent firm located in Minnesota that has been retained by CTODP to evaluate a family's ability to pay. The FAIR forms are made available to both incoming freshmen and returning students in the Spring of each school year and must be returned to FAIR on or before April 15. Incoming freshmen receive the FAIR form on freshman registration day. This deadline is very important. Families missing this deadline severely limit their ability to receive any aid from any source.

 

Role of CTODP in the financial aid program.

Each application filed with FAIR serves as a request for aid from both CTODP and any other source over which Saint Mary's exercises some control. CTODP is, by far, the largest source of financial aid funding. Saint Mary's is not involved in any way with decisions made by CTODP on either "demonstrated need" or CTODP financial aid awards; all of this is determined by officials of CTODP. 

 

Financial aid does not fully  meet a family's financial need.

Because the financial needs of our families exceed our financial aid resources, awards do not eliminate tuition payments for a family. There are very few exceptions to this rule, and recipients are usually in a very narrow category designated by the donor of the financial aid funds. For the 2006-2007 school year, financial aid from all sources was awarded to 51% of our student body, with 45% receiving $1,000 or more and 30% receiving $3,000 or more. Overall, after taking into account funds from all sources, our students have received more than $1,400,000 in financial aid.

 

Special circumstances.

Although financial aid decisions are primarily determined by the FAIR calculation of "demonstrated financial need", circumstances can be brought to our attention that allows us to reevaluate a family's needs. Each year we receive notice of changes in circumstances that happened after the completion of the FAIR form, including deaths, medical problems, divorces, job losses, etc. Families are asked to write the school and detail the reasons for their additional needs. We attempt to adjust financial aid awards but our ability to do so often depends on securing additional funds.

 

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