What Will Some Wealthy Parents Not Do if a Free Buck to be Made?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shrugs.

I have a nephew. Son of a single mother. I pay his private school tuition ($35k a year) and my parents helped my sister buy her house, a modest rowhouse in a very nice area, and pay for his camps and tutors and activities and trips abroad. If you met my nephew, he will come across as a nice upper middle class kid. When the time comes to go to college, based on my sister's income and assets he will qualify for substantial financial aid despite that the larger family is more affluent and could easily pay his tuition. We will do it if it needs to be the case, but you better believe we're going to game the system to try to get as much financial aid as we can. We're not going to pass up that chance. The system is broken, dysfunctional and hypocritical and we're not going to take the higher moral road because there is none.

Sorry, but you know their is a high ground, and you are not choosing it. Hence your use of the term “game the system”.

You do you, go ahead. To some, ethics are more important than money or sibling jealousy. The lucky poors!

People who claim a higher moral road often ignore that no one else cares. In most cases it's a self imposed punishment that accomplishes nothing. In this case it's no more unethical than a college claiming to be need blind and only offering token financial aid that is clearly insufficient, squeezing out people while rapidly becoming a campus divided between the rich and the lucky poor, as all the donut hole families can tell you.

In a system where top schools justify charging 70k a year for a degree, there are no ethics. It's as simple as that.

If you can't tell the difference between PP and engaging in a sham guardianship switch-up to effectively conceal the students's resources, I don't know what to tell you.

The PP accused me of sibling jealousy. If I was jealous I wouldn't be paying my nephew's tuition.

The difference between smart people and the gullible is that the smart know how to take advantage of the resources at their disposal, including the cards dealt to them. You don't know my sister or her particular circumstances beyond that she has a loving and supportive family. We will do what it takes to make sure my nephew has a great start in life. But we are not foolish enough to pass up opportunities to take advantage of loopholes due to how the financial aid system is structured. Morals and ethics ultimately boil down to treating people kindly and don't break unjust laws. Anything more than that is purely subjective.

You rationalize it however you like. You admit it was dishonest and your gonna do that anyway. And as others have pointed out you don’t care. So it’s all good. I’ll pay full price with my head high.

Where is the dishonesty? What rules or laws are broken? Where would the kid be lying on his forms when asked for parental income? Likewise, you can also rationalize your stance as much as you want but it doesn't change anything either.

Back in the day I knew a father who deliberately quit a high paying job to take a much lower paid non-profit role with the rationalization that it would make his family much poorer on paper and boost his kids' chances for financial aid. And apparently it worked out as all kids got major financial aid packages. Was that dishonest too?

[Anonymous]

I have no issue with this. Too bad the gig is up.

[Anonymous]

Hooray for ProPublica for highlighting this fraud. I hope the DOE charges these wealthy parents for theft of university resources.

https://www.propublica.org/article/college-student-financial-aid-guardianship-loophole-us-department-of-education#
U.S. Department of Education Wants to Stop “Student Aid Fraud Scheme” Where Parents Give Up Custody Through Dubious Guardianships

One day after our reporting, the department’s inspector general said it wants to close financial aid loopholes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shrugs.

I have a nephew. Son of a single mother. I pay his private school tuition ($35k a year) and my parents helped my sister buy her house, a modest rowhouse in a very nice area, and pay for his camps and tutors and activities and trips abroad. If you met my nephew, he will come across as a nice upper middle class kid. When the time comes to go to college, based on my sister's income and assets he will qualify for substantial financial aid despite that the larger family is more affluent and could easily pay his tuition. We will do it if it needs to be the case, but you better believe we're going to game the system to try to get as much financial aid as we can. We're not going to pass up that chance. The system is broken, dysfunctional and hypocritical and we're not going to take the higher moral road because there is none.

Sorry, but you know their is a high ground, and you are not choosing it. Hence your use of the term “game the system”.

You do you, go ahead. To some, ethics are more important than money or sibling jealousy. The lucky poors!

People who claim a higher moral road often ignore that no one else cares. In most cases it's a self imposed punishment that accomplishes nothing. In this case it's no more unethical than a college claiming to be need blind and only offering token financial aid that is clearly insufficient, squeezing out people while rapidly becoming a campus divided between the rich and the lucky poor, as all the donut hole families can tell you.

In a system where top schools justify charging 70k a year for a degree, there are no ethics. It's as simple as that.

If you can't tell the difference between PP and engaging in a sham guardianship switch-up to effectively conceal the students's resources, I don't know what to tell you.

The PP accused me of sibling jealousy. If I was jealous I wouldn't be paying my nephew's tuition.

The difference between smart people and the gullible is that the smart know how to take advantage of the resources at their disposal, including the cards dealt to them. You don't know my sister or her particular circumstances beyond that she has a loving and supportive family. We will do what it takes to make sure my nephew has a great start in life. But we are not foolish enough to pass up opportunities to take advantage of loopholes due to how the financial aid system is structured. Morals and ethics ultimately boil down to treating people kindly and don't break unjust laws. Anything more than that is purely subjective.

You rationalize it however you like. You admit it was dishonest and your gonna do that anyway. And as others have pointed out you don’t care. So it’s all good. I’ll pay full price with my head high.

You're going to pay full price for with your head held high - for your own kids, I presume. But, will you do so for your nephew? No? Then sit down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shrugs.

I have a nephew. Son of a single mother. I pay his private school tuition ($35k a year) and my parents helped my sister buy her house, a modest rowhouse in a very nice area, and pay for his camps and tutors and activities and trips abroad. If you met my nephew, he will come across as a nice upper middle class kid. When the time comes to go to college, based on my sister's income and assets he will qualify for substantial financial aid despite that the larger family is more affluent and could easily pay his tuition. We will do it if it needs to be the case, but you better believe we're going to game the system to try to get as much financial aid as we can. We're not going to pass up that chance. The system is broken, dysfunctional and hypocritical and we're not going to take the higher moral road because there is none.

You aren't gaming the system, though. His income is nil, his mother's is low and you and your family have helped but don't have to/can pull that help at any time so he should receive aid based on HHI not on the largesse of generous relatives.

Right - this notion that a kid of limited means should be ineligible for aid because relatives have helped him at some point in the past is bonkers. That people disagree with this befuddles me. I also have no idea why the PP is so defensive about it, or characterizing it as a loophole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shrugs.

I have a nephew. Son of a single mother. I pay his private school tuition ($35k a year) and my parents helped my sister buy her house, a modest rowhouse in a very nice area, and pay for his camps and tutors and activities and trips abroad. If you met my nephew, he will come across as a nice upper middle class kid. When the time comes to go to college, based on my sister's income and assets he will qualify for substantial financial aid despite that the larger family is more affluent and could easily pay his tuition. We will do it if it needs to be the case, but you better believe we're going to game the system to try to get as much financial aid as we can. We're not going to pass up that chance. The system is broken, dysfunctional and hypocritical and we're not going to take the higher moral road because there is none.

You aren't gaming the system, though. His income is nil, his mother's is low and you and your family have helped but don't have to/can pull that help at any time so he should receive aid based on HHI not on the largesse of generous relatives.

Right - this notion that a kid of limited means should be ineligible for aid because relatives have helped him at some point in the past is bonkers. That people disagree with this befuddles me. I also have no idea why the PP is so defensive about it, or characterizing it as a loophole.

Well, I do think that if the child has a 529 in their name, that ought to be counted for aid purposes, no matter who owns the account. I think currently, if a grandparent has a 529 for the grandchild, that's not counted on the FAFSA. That seems pretty unfair.

[jsteele]

Please join this thread which has a subject line that makes the topic clearer. Many duplicate threads have been started because posters don't realize what this thread is about:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/819193.page