Financial Aid

How to Apply for Financial Aid

Download Application Forms

The leadership and staff of Mills College and the Children’s School appreciate the confidence shown by families in seeking admission for their children to our laboratory school. We recognize the considerable financial commitment this represents to virtually every family. Families, staff, and others who support Mills College Children’s School work diligently each year to raise funds for scholarships.

We use an outside service for the initial screening for scholarship assistance, in an effort to ensure the broadest possible use of these funds. School and Student Service (SSS) for Financial Aid, an affiliate of the National Association of Independent Schools, provides this service throughout the country. This process is used by most private schools in the Bay Area and, if you are applying to other schools, you may arrange to have the information sent to them as well. The forms may also indicate more than one child in your family. Financial aid application forms can be completed online or you can request a hard copy from Whitney Walker, Admissions Director, at 510.430.2053 or wwalker@mills.edu.

This procedure can be time-consuming for families, so we suggest that you begin as soon as possible. Designate Mills as the receptor of your screening results, but do not send your SSS form to Mills. We give first consideration to applicants who met our priority deadlines (January 12 for Elementary School; February 17 for Preschool). Before any award decisions can be made, we also require a copy of your most recently completed federal tax return. Information received after the priority application deadline will only be considered if additional resources become available to the Children’s School.

We encourage you to consider additional sources of financial support from groups that provide scholarships to students at private schools, such as:

The Guardsman

The Basic Fund

Child Care Links