Impact of Bursary Applications on Admission? King's College School

[BeHazelBear]

We are currently considering applying to King’s College School for our son, and are undecided on whether to apply for a bursary. Since moving would be necessary, the cost of living in the Wimbledon or the surrounding area could be a significant factor for us.
Officially, we understand that applying for a bursary should not affect the admissions process. However, we’re concerned that selecting the bursary option might increase the difficulty of securing a place. We’ve heard that, in some private schools, financial aid requests can have an impact despite assurances to the contrary.
If anyone has insights or experience on this, we’d be very grateful. Thank you!

If you applying for bursary can be a choice, why would you apply?

If you need a bursary to be able to go surely you have to apply for one? If you're going to apply anyway but are just weighing up whether or not to apply for a bursary, you don't need a bursary!

The majority of KCS children are not local - just look at the bus route map! You really don’t have to live near Wimbledon

Depends how KCS manage the process, but some schools at interview will ask if you can afford the place without a bursary. If you say no, there is a risk your child won't be offered a place if the school doesn't have enough in the bursary pot to offer all who apply.

Sounds to me like you would like a bursary so you can move house?

You won't get a bursary based on potential future housing costs.

You will be expected to live much as you do at the time you are assessed, so moving to a more expensive property will be frowned on (unless its for a wholly unavoidable reason such as addition to the family and over-crowding otherwise)

So you need to start looking instead for cheaper areas within the footprint of the school's coach service, or which have easier public transport links.

KCS has pupils from a huge area. Living very locally is neither expected nor needed.

What other schools will you be applying for? And are you applying for any state schools as well - because those are the applications where address matters. And if affordability of private schooling is marginal, then you may conclude that state school is the better way forwards. So if you need/want to move, think also about state schools and being fully into your new home well before the cut off date for applications in your DS's round.

Generally, bursaries are offered to pupils who the school wants to join. KCS is, AFAIK, pretty straight - the bursary assessments are completely separate, and all boys are assessed in the same way. Only when the ranked list for offers is produced is financial need looked at. And they go down the list, offering bursaries until the bursary pot in empty. So if there are a lot more bursary candidates than funds available, then yes, you might miss out on being offered a bursary. But that's not because they are deliberately requiring a higher standard from those candidates. It's the reality that bursary pots can't always stretch to cover every applicant who meets the quality line.

Several schools are explicitly trying to achieve full "needs-blind" entry; maybe one day one or more will have a large enough pot to do so fully.

Other schools may assess bursaries in different ways (eg looking at what else the prospective pupil might bring to the school, whether that's in academics or co-curricular activity). But they'll still be balancing the pupils they want to bring in versus the size of the funds they have to make awards

From your other posts OP it looks like your son is very, very bright, but wasn’t the KCS application deadline yesterday?

It will affect his chance. He needs to be in top 1% to get a bursary place. Fierce competition . If he is successful, they will do a full background check on you to see if you indeed qualify for financial help.

It won't. If he qualifies for a space but there's no money left in the bursary pot, kids often get an offer of a space without the bursary. This happens often.

Thank you all for your responses. I think maybe I should clarify my question a bit.
Here’s my concern: When the bursary pot is insufficient to support all applicants who qualify for both admission and financial aid, do students lower on the bursary ranking list still receive an admission offer (without financial aid), or do they lose the admission offer entirely?

Regarding the ability to pay tuition, I think it’s a nuanced issue. Covering the fees could mean reducing housing standards or reducing the educational budget for other children. Although bursary assessments don’t necessarily require families to make these sacrifices, it’s something might be considered if our DS meet admission criteria but do not receive bursary support. It will be a decision made with everyone in the family, but in priciple, the option exists.

If he ranks lower and isn’t offered a bursary, would he still receive an admission offer?

Probably.

Sorry - I don't know for sure for KCS. I know that some schools do

You may be asked whether you would want a full fee offer if a bursary were not granted. If you could accept it regardless you won't be priority for one anyway.

we have registered, but not sure whether to register for bursary

Yes. Generally speaking they first do the admissions bit, then decide on bursaries for whoever has applied and been successful. If there's no money left for some, they still get offered a space, just without a bursary. This is how it works in all private schools I've heard of, and there's quite a few threads on here where people were in this exact situation- place offered but can't afford to accept as no bursary award was given, or a very small one.
Applying for a bursary cannot disadvantage you to a space, that's in most ts&cs.
However, this is just not a worry most people who apply for bursaries have if I'm honest. If you're likely to be able to accept a place without a bursary, than you're really not in a position where you'll get much money if I'm honest. I used to work in schools finance and the checks are done with a fine tooth comb, often by an external company.

If you're applying for a bursary the registration fee is usually waived. You really should just speak to the bursar.

It does depend on the school so you are right to be concerned in theory. That said, I believe KCS Wimbledon is one of the ones that would make the decision independent of the bursary application. If they didn't think you qualified for a bursary, they would just offer you a place without bursary.

KCS use an external third party company to assess bursaries yes. And they waive the registration fee for those in receipt of Pupil Premium. As previous posters have said, bursaries are on a sliding scale so the likelihood is you may have to pay something, even if not full fees.

This isn't true.

Bursaries are very carefully looked at and investigated often by a third party company. It's a very comprehensive process. They then tell the school how much bursary they think you will need (you don't get told this amount) and then the school will decide to offer of not. It will all depend how much they want your child there. If not a third party, the school bursars will have their own rigorous process too.