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

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81–90 of 99 posts

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

#81
post #60

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…

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),…

I'd have to agree, I took a couple community college classes over the summer (I was enrolled in a 4-year college) to get some credits out of the way.

WOW, the classes were so much easier than what I would expect from high school classes. It was honestly shocking they were giving out college credit.

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

#82
the best case scenario for means testing is always perverse incentives like this. Just give it away, man. K-16, ezpz. If you want to find efficiencies go after the sub provost to the assistant registrar for the vice dean; bureaucracies have ballooned inside of colleges compared to instructor salaries.

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

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So giving up custody is a legal way to express this situation in legal terms. That's a different situation than the situation the article discusses. These kids are still receiving support while pretending not to (for financial gain). The colleges are now asking if the student is still on their parent's health insurance and or getting their bills paid by their parents to combat the abuse they've been seeing.

> That's a different situation than the situation the article discusses. These kids are still receiving support while pretending not to (for financial gain). could you provide citation? I think article says exactly that some students want to separate from parents through guardianship concept and try to push this through court, but colleges investigate and flag such cases internally.

> could you provide citation?

I already gave you one. The article this thread is about.

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

#84
post #71
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 burd…

I agree with people with more paying more into the general fund of the government. But when major parts of the US budget get deficit funded, why does higher education get individually loaded cost wise? It makes no sense, there's no real need to discourage people from getting too much education. And long term loans, are just as inflationary to issue to the economy - and when you collect the interest back long term, yo…

I completely agree with you that this approach to education isn't ideal and that we collectively would be better off if the onus for funding education was shifted back to the general tax payer again. That said, if you have a system in which the education dollars are limits, like we currently do, the best approach in my opinion is to charge people based on their ability to pay.

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

#85
post #59

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.

according to the people who told me about moving to a worse school, transcripts coming from "urban underserved schools" (there was an actual technical term they used but i forgot it) are more appealing to ivy league schools. They had about five tricks to make their kids more appealing to ivy's that included moving houses, changing schools, specific sports, certain extra curricular, etc. -- to clarify we were chatting at a 4 y/o's birthday party.

See this thread for young marriage to hide parental income as another tactic.

You probably went to a crappy school because your parents were poor and they wouldn't know any tricks to give you advantages.

You (having poor parents) wouldn't need an entire class of these scams designed to hide your wealthy upbringing.

Alternatively watch king of the hill episode "The Redneck on Rainey Street" :)

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

#86
post #77

My favourite idea for fixing the cost of tertiary education, is for universities to "buy a stake in you". i.e. You apply for Course X and the university quotes you Y% of your income for the next Z many years. Say 15% for 15 years over say a £20k floor. Better students get a lower percentage. Courses with poor prospects get punished with having to publish higher percentages before you get in the door. You as the stude…

This would basically make art degrees and history degrees unattainable except for the rich. Not that I mind, but that is the complaint you'll get with this system.

I'd disagree.

The cost of delivering an arts and history course should be cheaper than say a course requiring a medical-teaching-hospital, a super-computer, wind-tunnel - whatever.

If all you need are some great lecturers, you can poach them and set up a department somewhere with a low cost of living for staff and students.

These subjects are also a fine fit for distance-learning, part-time etc.

Basically, I'd hope that universities would be forced to consider how they could reduce the cost of these courses in a sensible way. Current system of "all of you get on this expensive campus and pay your share" is unfair, as a lot of the benefits of this are skewed.

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

#87
post #19

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…

I guess that depends on the school. I think professors in 'regular' schools are pretty available to students in the US.

Yes, that's a good point. Different schools have different teaching/research balances and I would expect to find a difference there in the average attitudes of the professors.

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

#88
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Unless he cracked it seems like throwing away $50 in a casino shouldn't be enough grounds for the police to search your car.

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

#89
post #60

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…

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),…

Having attended both types of college, I actually had the opposite experience. At the community college, I was taught entry level classes by PHds who taught purely for enjoyment. The students were largely very motivated and professional. The university I attended was decent (top 60s), but all my direct interactions were with graduate TAs, many of whom struggled with the English language. The students mostly just wanted to party and constantly needed their hands held.

Most likely I just got lucky. My main point is that anecdata isn't very good data.

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

#90
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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),…

I took Spanish at community college and it was a breeze. I rushed through all my assignments in class and spent the rest of the time spacing out. Felt like middle school all over again.

I had forgotten about my Spanish course at the local community college.

During finals of Spanish 103, we had to make some small conversation. Some students couldn’t string 4 words together.

At the end of the test, the teacher says “you all get an A” and that was that.

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