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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

#51

Post by slg »

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.

The government. I pay more in taxes not because I use more roads, need more protection from our military, or send more kids to the local school. I pay more because the government knows I can afford it. That is how the system was designed and it is completely appropriate in my opinion. College is just a continuation of that since it is in part funded by the government. Except in recent decades we have shifted the burden from the overall taxpayer to the students themselves (and their parents). However the basic idea that the people who have more money should pay more for the service has stuck around. I can't say I disagree with that approach even if it does incentivize weird loopholes like the one discussed in the article.

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

#52

Post by akhilcacharya »

asdfman123 wrote: post #15
akhilcacharya wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Oof. I wasn't expecting a Stanford flex here.

I wish I was the smart kid. It's not like I even got a full ride!

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

#53

Post by protomyth »

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…

“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.”

Or, being needy, have been crapped on by institutions multiple times and have a fatalistic view. Well, it was fun while it lasted, or guess I need to get a job and spend time working to complete my education. It is amazing how many problems could be resolved by a talk with a school administrator that doesn't because students just accept what they are told.

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

#54

Post by whymauri »

sudosteph wrote: post #36
ngngngng wrote: post #27

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…

I honestly think your situation is probably more common than the one in the article. I knew a few people in a similar situation to yours, where they could not rely on parental support after turning 18, but they were not considered legally emancipated before that point so FAFSA wasn't giving them any grants. The one kid I knew who has actually homeless due to parents kicking him out in high school, did get legally ema…

To add to this, a good friend of mine had her sister adopt her as guardian when applying for aid. A messy parental divorce made financial paperwork nearly impossible to file, not to mention that even if it was filed her father wouldn't contribute anything.

That scenario, an estranged parent who refuses to pay any of their "contribution", is unfortunately really common.

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

#55

Post by Someone1234 »

stickfigure wrote: post #41

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 fi…

The student is intentionally misleading the colleges about their financial status and the financial support they receive. They're literally declaring themselves financially independent while not being financial independent. That's outright fraud:

> In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain

This isn't clever maneuvering. It is unlawful deception.

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

#56

Post by asdfman123 »

akhilcacharya wrote: post #52
asdfman123 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Oof. I wasn't expecting a Stanford flex here. I wish I was the smart kid. It's not like I even got a full ride!

Don't worry, I'm not a very smart programmer. I wanted to be a scientist.

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

#57

Post by GVIrish »

jimbokun wrote: post #28
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.

There are plenty of skilled trade jobs that pay as well or better than a number of undergraduate degrees. Electrician, aviation techs, construction managers, plumbers, radiology tech, LPN, and dental hygienists are all jobs that pay as well or better than some of the lower paying bachelor's degree careers. So that would be your history, english, biology, psychology degrees, etc. Here's a chart of salaries by 4 year degree:

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-salaries-colleg...

Obviously once you get into engineering degrees, computer science, finance, law degrees, and the like, no trade school or community college degree can compare. But the ultimate point is that a 4 year degree is not the only path to a decent income. Especially when you factor in student loan debt.

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

#59

Post by astura »

liveoneggs wrote: post #5

this is an excellent scam and like ten levels higher than moving your kid into a crappy high school senior year to qualify for similar assistance.

I went to a crappy high school all four years, I don't remember any particular assistance I got for the pleasure.

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

#60

Post by TomVDB »

asdfman123 wrote: post #7
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 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…

My daughter decided to defer going to ‘real’ college for a year to figure out what she wanted to do: why spend all the money when you haven’t figured out things anyway?

She enrolled at a highly rated local community college and signed up for some difficult classes and she was very much not impressed: the pace of instruction was very slow, the students unmotivated (not doing homework, not participating during class), and the overall level of instruction often easier than what she had in high school.

It’s an excellent way to get some garden variety general courses off you plate at low cost and low effort, but, in her case, it was not a substitution of the real thing.

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