More like money saving tricks to me, doesn't seem illegal.
Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid
11–20 of 99 posts
Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid
#12It seems much fairer to universally fund zero or low cost tuition for public university (or trade school, etc) irrespective of wealth and people wanting the prestige or networking or whatever of private university institutions can then pay for that perceived added value. Instead, we have squabbles over the scraps of funding over current access and the enforcement costs of trying to keep one group from "getting ahead"…
Its clear that federally backed student loans are one of the causes for increased tuition across the board. It seems that instead of pushing for debt cancellation it would be better to restrict any sort of federal assistance unless you're going to your in-state public school (likely the cheapest option in 99% of cases).
I think federal and state funding should go directly to public universities (with strings on administrative overhead and tuition costs). Federally backed student loans might remain for partial coverage of private university, but otherwise, they do exactly what you say - allow tuition costs to rapidly increase.
But the principle of universal low cost access and bulk financing of it what is the cost saver vs trying to apply consumer product market models where transactions few and in most cases once in a lifetime per consumer. Tuition increases because the consumer product model of giving loans can't regulate prices in the market with that kind of transaction structure.
Edit: Worse, as I mentioned in another comment, it's an industry that gets a detailed map of your finances before issuing a price for the services. That's no kind of market.
Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid
#13It seems much fairer to universally fund zero or low cost tuition for public university (or trade school, etc) irrespective of wealth and people wanting the prestige or networking or whatever of private university institutions can then pay for that perceived added value. Instead, we have squabbles over the scraps of funding over current access and the enforcement costs of trying to keep one group from "getting ahead"…
This is more or less how things worked where I lived in Italy, but I'm not totally convinced. There's still an 'opportunity cost' to going to college; for that and other reasons, it's still more an institution for middle/upper class kids. So they're taking advantage of a subsidized benefit more than those who aren't so well off, which is a bit perverse. Also, while I think kids in US schools are treated way too much…
> Also, while I think kids in US schools are treated way too much like paying customers, it seemed that in Italian schools students were seen in some cases as more of a burden to be dealt with.
In America you tend to get both. Administration treats you like a customer (in the sense that they see a wallet with legs when they look at you) while the professors frequently seem to view teaching courses as a chore that gets in the way of their research.
Of course there are plenty of exceptions to go around, but all-in-all it's generally pretty crap.
Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid
#14[deleted]
Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You can go to a community college for much less money and all kids aren't required to go to College to earn a good living Do you hear that sound? It is the sound of ten million wealthy upper middle class parents simultaneously recoiling in horror. But seriously, parents that do these sorts of things have spent the last 20 years of their life ensuring their kids stay on the maximum-privilege track, and they're not g…
> It is the sound of ten million wealthy upper middle class parents simultaneously recoiling in horror. I went to a community college during high school, and this seems like the stigma is the reason why more people don't do dual enrollment.
Oh yeah. This is a game in which people are competing for social status. Sure, you can buy a nice car and you can buy a nice house, but you can't buy your children's way into... actually, scratch that. It's just much harder.
But having smart kids is the crowning achievement for these parents. I feel terribly sorry for kids caught in the middle of all of it.
I went to Stanford, but my parents didn't give a damn about any of that. Get this -- they taught me to value knowledge and a good work ethic, and I got in because I was really good at standardized tests.
However, I don't think it's been a big benefit for me because I wasn't a top student there, and I got off the hyper-achievement train early on in my twenties. I probably would have been just as okay professionally if I had taken that full scholarship to Texas A&M that I got through my standardized test-taking ability.
Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid
#16Getting married is another way to get financial independence for the purposes of financial aid in the US: https://budgeting.thenest.com/can-married-students-financial...
Some have fake marriages for this purpose: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4wbeqg/how-some-students-...
Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid
#17You can go to a community college for much less money and all kids aren't required to go to College to earn a good living. This is just silly.
This depends on the degree. My computer science degree had CS classes all the way from freshman year, and I think the pre-requisite graph required at least 3 years, so the standard ‘2 years of core classes for an associates and then 2 years of degree-specific courses’ wouldn’t have worked well for people like me and it would have taken me 5+ years of relatively light classes to finish college with a degree rather tha…
Community colleges offer CS classes. Whether they’ll be accepted as specific prerequisites at a specific 4-year institution would require further research, but it’s definitely not a reason to completely dismiss community college. You can also go to community college for one year, then transfer to a university. There’s no requirement to get a degree before transferring.
Source: I did one year of community college before transferring into the computer & electrical engineering program at a university.
Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is more or less how things worked where I lived in Italy, but I'm not totally convinced. There's still an 'opportunity cost' to going to college; for that and other reasons, it's still more an institution for middle/upper class kids. So they're taking advantage of a subsidized benefit more than those who aren't so well off, which is a bit perverse. Also, while I think kids in US schools are treated way too much…
> Also, while I think kids in US schools are treated way too much like paying customers, it seemed that in Italian schools students were seen in some cases as more of a burden to be dealt with. In America you tend to get both. Administration treats you like a customer (in the sense that they see a wallet with legs when they look at you) while the professors frequently seem to view teaching courses as a chore that get…
Name any other industry that gets a detailed map of your finances and savings before issuing a price for their services. It's a recipe for maximal extraction.
Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is more or less how things worked where I lived in Italy, but I'm not totally convinced. There's still an 'opportunity cost' to going to college; for that and other reasons, it's still more an institution for middle/upper class kids. So they're taking advantage of a subsidized benefit more than those who aren't so well off, which is a bit perverse. Also, while I think kids in US schools are treated way too much…
> Also, while I think kids in US schools are treated way too much like paying customers, it seemed that in Italian schools students were seen in some cases as more of a burden to be dealt with. In America you tend to get both. Administration treats you like a customer (in the sense that they see a wallet with legs when they look at you) while the professors frequently seem to view teaching courses as a chore that get…
I guess that depends on the school. I think professors in 'regular' schools are pretty available to students in the US.
Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid
#20It seems much fairer to universally fund zero or low cost tuition for public university (or trade school, etc) irrespective of wealth and people wanting the prestige or networking or whatever of private university institutions can then pay for that perceived added value. Instead, we have squabbles over the scraps of funding over current access and the enforcement costs of trying to keep one group from "getting ahead"…
This is more or less how things worked where I lived in Italy, but I'm not totally convinced. There's still an 'opportunity cost' to going to college; for that and other reasons, it's still more an institution for middle/upper class kids. So they're taking advantage of a subsidized benefit more than those who aren't so well off, which is a bit perverse. Also, while I think kids in US schools are treated way too much…
I didn't look at college prices in Italy from the US, but in many nations (germany, netherlands), the tuition and the board was not zero but a reasonably low cost where family or even part time work would pay for that (low hundreds of euros per semester). That seems like a far more level playing field than what we're looking at in the US where a majority of students currently face a lifetime debt burden (and that is the best "aid" offered..)