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?
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
#32FASFA 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
It does. The students are declaring themselves "financially independent." The guardianship is a tool towards that end goal.
- Parents voluntarily grant guardianship (to friend/relative).
- Guardian dissolves (either voluntarily or automatically).
- Student gains financially independent status. Is eligible for financial aid.
Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid
#33It 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 understated.
Still, zero or low cost will create shortages, and that will create fairness or unfairness of a different variety. There is no panacea. We should admire and work towards better vocational education, though, because many people don't like sitting quietly and doing abstract symbol manipulation.
Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid
#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 knew they were being ripped off, because their token inventory was higher than they could account for, and the discrepancy was increasing.
The counterfeit tokens were good enough that the casinos had no way to detect them, and when they sent a batch of tokens back to the manufacturer that they were sure include at least some counterfeits and asked if the manufacturer could come up with some way to fight this, the manufacturer said all the tokens were genuine.
What finally happened is that Colavecchio was using his counterfeit tokens at a slot machine that took high value tokens, like $50, and the token mechanism jammed. Colavecchio just moved over to the next machine, and continued playing.
The security people saw this, and found it very suspicious. When a machine jams and eats someone's $50 token, they don't just move over and continue gambling, even if they are a gambling addict. They go find casino staff to retrieve the jammed token or get reimbursed.
They detained him and searched his car and room, and found a large collections of tokens for several casinos, and knew they had finally found the counterfeiter.
Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid
#35This is why regulations in general are so messy. You come up with a "common sense" regulation to address a problem. You end up creating a new problem as people attempt to skirt the rules and get around it.
It's a good reason why healthcare is so messed up in the US. A ton of rules that create really bizarre incentives to get around them.
Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid
#36I 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 emancipated and was able to qualify for FAFSA, but it was a huge pain.
The people I knew in this situation mostly ended up working some job, going to community college and transferring into a state school or getting a cert for a different career path from community college.
Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid
#37> 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.
Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid
#38Earlier 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.
> Name any other industry that gets a detailed map of your finances and savings before issuing a price for their services.
But, higher ed doesn't. They set a price in advance, and get that information if/when you ask for a public subsidy (which the university may require you to do and to share the information as a condition of offering their own discounts, framed as self-issued subsidiies.) Pretty much every industry can ask for that kind of information as a condition of offering discounts, though they may not have public subsidies available or be able to get the information used in public subsidy applications directly.
Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid
#39It 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"…
The biggest problem is cost. We shouldn’t devote a cent more funding to colleges without requiring massive spending and tuition cuts.
Even public colleges resemble country clubs. That’s great, but we shouldn’t tax non-college grads so kids can have a good time.
If college cost the same as it did 30 years ago (adjusted for inflation), there really wouldn’t be an issue.
Additional funding will just lead to more admins, useless programs, and larger tenure salaries.
Re: Parents Give Up Custody of Their Kids to Get Need-Based College Financial Aid
#40FASFA 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.
Funny, that missed me. I FAFSA'd out of support due to my parents income and didn't get a dime from my parents. I suppose they supported me with the clothes on my back, but that is about it. I'm pretty sure I sit with a majority of my generation, and I find the only people placating this abusive pillaging to be those who simply do not perceive it is happening. In practice sufficient wealth to contribute doesn't mean the motivation nor incentive. I truly hope this corrects itself in time, but it is far far too late for me. If I achieve moderate financial success I'd most likely philanthropize in the form of a scholarship dedicated to exactly this gap, and/or lobby for change.