Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid • Hacker News Board

Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid

#21

Post by cameronbrown » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 5:32 PM UTC

dv_dt wrote: post #18

liability wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

This is just an offshoot of the financial industry though.

Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid

#22

Post by davidw » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 5:32 PM UTC

dv_dt wrote: post #20

davidw wrote: post #8

Earlier 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…

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…

Even if the price is zero, you're spending 3/4/5/whatever years not bringing in money. You could, by way of example, be helping in your dad's auto-repair business and learning that trade. That's the "opportunity cost" I wrote about.

No argument that their system is better in some ways, but I think it has some defects too.

Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid

#23

Post by sjg007 » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 5:34 PM UTC

FASFA requiring a parental contribution has always seemed weird. You are 18, an adult, why is there an expectation on parents to pay for anything?

Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid

#24

Post by kd0amg » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 5:34 PM UTC

akhilcacharya wrote: post #10

asdfman123 wrote: post #7

Earlier 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.

Well... CLC didn't offer me much that I wanted but couldn't get at Stevenson anyway. I was dual enrolled for an introductory philosophy class, but within my eventual undergrad majors, Stevenson offered at least as much coursework depth.

Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid

#25

Post by jimbokun » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 5:35 PM UTC

akhilcacharya wrote: post #9

dv_dt wrote: post #4

It 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).

Pass a law that ZERO federal or state money can go to private universities. It is not the role of public tax dollars to subsidize wealthy private institutions.

The lion's share seems to just go to administrators, anyways.

Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid

#26

Post by kd0amg » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 5:35 PM UTC

sjg007 wrote: post #23

FASFA requiring a parental contribution has always seemed weird. You are 18, an adult, why is there an expectation on parents to pay for anything?

Even weirder if it also doesn't expect legal guardians to contribute

Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid

#27

Post by ngngngng » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 5:36 PM UTC

I considered doing something like this when I entered college. My parents make enough money that I didn't qualify for any aid at all, but they also wouldn't give me a penny under any circumstance. One of my dads favorite sayings was "I have to clothe your butt, not decorate it." Which is how he justified us never having clothes that fit.

Anyways, I didn't end up doing this and just went without food sometimes to make ends meet, ended up dropping out when I ran out of the money I'd saved at my minimum wage job in high school.

I'm writing this out to show that while on paper I came from a wealthy family, a loophole like this would have really helped me.

Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid

#28

Post by jimbokun » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 5:37 PM UTC

cheeky78 wrote: post #2

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. This is just silly.

> You can go to a community college for much less money

Agreed.

> and all kids aren't required to go to College to earn a good living.

This will need a citation. My understanding is that the gap between between college graduates incomes and non-college graduate incomes continues to increase.

Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid

#29

Post by notahacker » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 5:38 PM UTC

sjg007 wrote: post #23

FASFA requiring a parental contribution has always seemed weird. You are 18, an adult, why is there an expectation on parents to pay for anything?

Because in practice, parents of sufficient wealth usually do contribute towards 18 year olds' education (or their living costs where the education is government funded), and every subsidy a university gives to a multimillionaire's offspring means less subsidy available for the genuinely poor.

Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid

#30

Post by mox1 » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 5:40 PM UTC

So it is ok for companies to do things like this with the tax laws, but not OK for individuals?

There is no law against giving up custody of your child. Additionally, FAFSA says you must include parents wealth, so if you have no "parents", then you don't have to include them.