Anonymous wrote:All these issues could be solved if college were free for 98% of families. The ultra-rich own enormous wealth and could easily cover everyone’s tuition.

With the slowly disintegrating president’s “big beautiful bill” , Trump attacks working class families by eliminating Pell Grants and other federal programs. Democrats want all students graduating from a state college to be debt-free. This would work by the federal government matching what the states are doing.

Anonymous wrote:Donut hole family, who's salaries combined were under $150k until very recently (now $190k, paying $90k per year, in full).

Tufts is one example of colleges helping middle class families. They offer free tuition for families with incomes of $150k or less. There are a handful of colleges who offer similar deals.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People just have to believe someone (preferably a minority or poor person) is gaming the system at their expense. So when their kid gets rejected it’s not their fault. Cope harder everyone.

Exactly. Perhaps if they cared about their DCs attending more than one of 20ish schools, they wouldn’t spend so much time looking for bogeymen. First it was DEI, then TO, then athletes, and now financial aid fraud standing in the way of your kids? Maybe your kid just isn’t that awesome despite the 1500+ SAT score. They should rename this board the Airing of White and Asian Grievance.

Except whites, who malign kids from all other races and FGLI, as inferior to their high stats, UMC kids, perpetually blame Asian kids for ruining the cultures of the schools to which they believe their kids to be entitled because they are strivers who drive up grading curves requiring everyone else to study too much.

Apparently, too little purported merit is bad, but so is too much merit.

Anonymous wrote:PP. what’s more likely, some families live a very leveraged lifestyle and are really much poorer than they appear. This is the explanation for “rich” people getting aid. The grandparents own the house, the “business” is losing money, and they are up to their ears in debt.

+1

Especially here in CA

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It definitely happens but lots of fraud happens in life. Nothing to do about it. Stay in your own lane and don't worry about other people or you'll drive yourself nuts.

It is unfair to the hard working mc students. These institutes are encouraging frauds basically

You need to be quite wealthy to get no aid at a full need institution. $200k (umc) gets you a full tuition aid package, for crying out loud.

And yes, $200k doesn't go as far in the DMV as it does in Dallas, but you need to be earning much more than that to get little to no aid whatsoever.

only if you have "typical assets" which colleges think is 250k.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It definitely happens but lots of fraud happens in life. Nothing to do about it. Stay in your own lane and don't worry about other people or you'll drive yourself nuts.

It is unfair to the hard working mc students. These institutes are encouraging frauds basically

You need to be quite wealthy to get no aid at a full need institution. $200k (umc) gets you a full tuition aid package, for crying out loud.

And yes, $200k doesn't go as far in the DMV as it does in Dallas, but you need to be earning much more than that to get little to no aid whatsoever.

Calm down.

OP, there are only a very small number of situations in which it is possible to "hide" your wealth from colleges. If you happen to be in such a situation, please, go for it! Colleges are too expensive and I would never fault anyone for taking advantage of loopholes. It's just like taxes. If you can benefit from a loophole, do so.

But the immense majority of families do not find themselves in such situations.

So the answer to your question is that yes, people can hide their true wealth, but it's rare.

By and large, the "system" works. Now is it a fair or rational system to begin with? I don't think so. I think colleges should offer less perks, focus just on education, be subsidized by the government and cost a lot less money. But the current system works as intended.

You people are so whiny. Yes, full pay is a hook (not even rich schools relish giving discounts). There are basically no “cash” businesses in 2025. You are rich. Stop complaining about being able to spend the money you have on the things you can afford.

Anonymous wrote:People just have to believe someone (preferably a minority or poor person) is gaming the system at their expense. So when their kid gets rejected it’s not their fault. Cope harder everyone.

Exactly. Perhaps if they cared about their DCs attending more than one of 20ish schools, they wouldn’t spend so much time looking for bogeymen. First it was DEI, then TO, then athletes, and now financial aid fraud standing in the way of your kids? Maybe your kid just isn’t that awesome despite the 1500+ SAT score. They should rename this board the Airing of White and Asian Grievance.

Anonymous wrote:My father in law did this. Divorced unhappily, custody arrangement for last kid, long career engineer money Dad. Pretended he was estranged from family, “unreachable” (though he saw all of us whenever there was an holiday or three day weekend) and last kid was child of a single mother making bank teller money.

Why? So he didn’t have to pay full price to university. He was always going to pay, just gave money to mom or kid after financial aid package came in. He just didn’t want to pay the money the universities charge. And they/he got away with it.

Are you willing to lie to pay less money? Lot of people treat their bills, the IRS, anything with flexible pricing this way. They’re “being smart” according to them.

And I disagree but also: why can’t colleges just F’ing not charge so much even if I DO have a lifetime of savings and high demand for a colleges education for my kids? Why do they deserve my money instead of me?

Exactly—and this just creates loopholes for fraud. Middle-class families end up struggling and sponsoring everything. Why? Just why?

You'd think public schools are good enough of a choice. They are not free first of all, and they prefer full paid OOS or International students over in state students

My father in law did this. Divorced unhappily, custody arrangement for last kid, long career engineer money Dad. Pretended he was estranged from family, “unreachable” (though he saw all of us whenever there was an holiday or three day weekend) and last kid was child of a single mother making bank teller money.

Why? So he didn’t have to pay full price to university. He was always going to pay, just gave money to mom or kid after financial aid package came in. He just didn’t want to pay the money the universities charge. And they/he got away with it.

Are you willing to lie to pay less money? Lot of people treat their bills, the IRS, anything with flexible pricing this way. They’re “being smart” according to them.

And I disagree but also: why can’t colleges just F’ing not charge so much even if I DO have a lifetime of savings and high demand for a colleges education for my kids? Why do they deserve my money instead of me?

Anonymous wrote:There are always accusations about Questbridge but honestly that's one of the hardest to "game" because they look at income, assets, first-generation status, and household circumstances.

There is also a multi-stage interview process.

It's just vanishingly unlikely that Chaz from the country club quit his lawyering job for six months and his kid got this opportunity.

wasn't a Chaz. was a mom. she lost her job and purposely didn't get another til tax year changed over.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People just have to believe someone (preferably a minority or poor person) is gaming the system at their expense. So when their kid gets rejected it’s not their fault. Cope harder everyone.

This.

So for decades people have been defrauding colleges of tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars each? And nobody noticed or took any action?

yes. there's a fair amount of "loss" all the time. they do make some tweaks. the change to make both parents - even if divorced - share financials is only a couple of years old. WHICH IS NUTS. I guess college figure they get enough to make it work. but they know there are cheaters.

There are always accusations about Questbridge but honestly that's one of the hardest to "game" because they look at income, assets, first-generation status, and household circumstances.

There is also a multi-stage interview process.

It's just vanishingly unlikely that Chaz from the country club quit his lawyering job for six months and his kid got this opportunity.

Anonymous wrote:People just have to believe someone (preferably a minority or poor person) is gaming the system at their expense. So when their kid gets rejected it’s not their fault. Cope harder everyone.

This.

So for decades people have been defrauding colleges of tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars each? And nobody noticed or took any action?