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

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

#41

Post by stickfigure »

It's odd to me that folks are calling this a scam. I'd describe it more as unintended consequences of a poorly thought out governance system. These "scammers" are using the letter of the law just the same way that accountants figure out how to use every possible loophole to minimize tax burden. Every role-playing gamer in the world is already familiar with the concept.

The solution is to fix the system, ideally by fixing the incentives. If we craft a system that lets someone legally fill out a form and get cash, don't be offended when people use it. Solutions that expect parents to put the "greater good" ahead of the interests of their children are doomed to failure.

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

#42

Post by refurb »

tzs wrote: post #34

> Borst said the university told the three students midway through last school year that their university-based financial aid would be reduced. “We didn’t hear any complaint, and that is also a big red flag,” Borst said. “If they were needy, they would have come in to talk with us.” That's reminiscent of what gave away Louis Colavecchio, who was ripping off Atlantic City casinos with counterfeit tokens. The casinos k…

I remember watching a show about that guy. Really incredible amount of effort skill to pull that off. If I remember correctly he bought himself a $250K EDM (electric discharge machine) to create basically perfect copies of the tokens.

But as you said, he used them and the machine malfunctioned (not his fault). When he walked away from a pile of money, they immediately knew he was the culprit.

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

#44

Post by sudosteph »

jatsign wrote: post #31

I have 529 plans for both my kids. Lets say I save up enough for them to pay for their entire college. If an alternate family, making the same as us, saves nothing, could they qualify for aid, while we wouldn't?

Not likely. FAFSA is almost 100% determined by your parents income from the previous year tax reports. It doesn't typically cover everything, even if you get the biggest possible grant. I got a decent FAFSA package, went to a very-affordable in-state college, but I still have loans that probably would have been avoidable if my parents had invested in a 529.

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

#45

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

mevile wrote: post #37
tzs wrote: post #34

> Borst said the university told the three students midway through last school year that their university-based financial aid would be reduced. “We didn’t hear any complaint, and that is also a big red flag,” Borst said. “If they were needy, they would have come in to talk with us.” That's reminiscent of what gave away Louis Colavecchio, who was ripping off Atlantic City casinos with counterfeit tokens. The casinos k…

How are private hotel security able to search someone's car? That seems sketchy.

Would it have to be private security? They could have called the police.

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

#46

Post by onemoresoop »

mevile wrote: post #37
tzs wrote: post #34

> Borst said the university told the three students midway through last school year that their university-based financial aid would be reduced. “We didn’t hear any complaint, and that is also a big red flag,” Borst said. “If they were needy, they would have come in to talk with us.” That's reminiscent of what gave away Louis Colavecchio, who was ripping off Atlantic City casinos with counterfeit tokens. The casinos k…

How are private hotel security able to search someone's car? That seems sketchy.

Good luck trying to enforce your rights in a casino.

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

#47

Post by digikata »

jseliger wrote: post #33
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"…

It seems much fairer to universally fund zero or low cost tuition for public university (or trade school, etc) I like the inclusion of trade school: https://jakeseliger.com/2018/03/12/the-case-against-educatio... , as a lot of modern college education is bogus: https://jakeseliger.com/2014/04/27/paying-for-the-party-eliz... . I've been on the supplier side of it, and the extent of the corruption in the system is unde…

I reject that low cost will create shortages in education, why? The more people we educate, the more are available to educate others. People, ingenuity, and education are a renewable resource.

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

#48

Post by pacerwpg »

tzs wrote: post #34

> Borst said the university told the three students midway through last school year that their university-based financial aid would be reduced. “We didn’t hear any complaint, and that is also a big red flag,” Borst said. “If they were needy, they would have come in to talk with us.” That's reminiscent of what gave away Louis Colavecchio, who was ripping off Atlantic City casinos with counterfeit tokens. The casinos k…

There's some irony that his actions to avoid drawing attention ended up drawing attention because they're weren't at all consistent with the expected behaviors.

He could've played a table game like Blackjack, but he would've been subjected the scrutiny of a human dealer.

He could've used smaller denominations, but the reward may not have been worth the effort.

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

#49

Post by rhino369 »

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?

18 year olds don’t have much income or assets, outside of special cases. If you want to give financial aid to “poor students” there really isn’t any other way to do it.

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

#50

Post by dragonwriter »

t-writescode wrote: post #6
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.

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…

> 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

Community colleges often have CS programs, they don't just offer GE.

They may not have equivalents for all of the courses in a particular universities lower-division major curriculum in a particular major, which can be an issue.

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