I am a private school graduate. I just wanted to say something about your comment regarding private schools. I think you must have some bias toward what a private school, or in educational lingo is known as an ‘independent’ school.

Because an independent school avoids public funding (I say avoid because many of them do take public funds for various reasons.), it allows for great intellectual freedom since they no longer have to follow a state-mandated curriculum. They can deviate from the curriculum and push their students to academic achievement without making them test-taking robots. Perhaps it is the school itself and the quality of education it provides that makes the difference, NOT whether or not it’s a public or private school.

In assessing a private school, a parent should delve into its curriculum and faculty to get a sense of the intellectual freedom it provides rather than condemn them as places that churn out automatons without taking a critical look at them.

I’m not saying you are wrong, but I wanted to point out that your statement implies that private schools don’t foster intellectual inquiry, which I think is biased in some way that you might want to explain.

Cheers!

In this case, it appears that your own personal anger from your college experience is preventing you from bringing your readers good advice. There are other, better, strategies for paying for college than gaming the system (e.g. welfare fraud).

Let me put it simply. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, folks. You don’t fix an unfair system by cajoling 90% of the population into submission while the remaining 10% get a huge advantage. If everybody took maximum advantage of the system, it would either be amended or it would collapse and a different system would take its place. Problem solved.

As for the cries for a merit based system, well, that’s awfully naive. It completely ignores the possibility that financial status has an impact on any realistic measure of scholastic aptitude and so certain poor groups need to have an artificial booster. Furthermore, it would be completely retarded to have an aid system that gives monetary assistance to millionaires, even occasionally.

Thanks so much for the reply. I was very lucky when I went to college (70’s) in that I had a full scholarship that even covered books. So the whole financial aid scene is a mystery to me. But, as I said, I do have a daughter so I guess it’s time to start learning all I can.

Thanks again!

There is no reason why you cannot do that. Unless it has changed in the last three years, you fill out a FAFSA every year after filing your taxes for the previous year. I actually had money saved up from working in high school so my expected contribution was higher the first year. After I burned through that money, my expected contribution was lower and I actually picked up an additional grant for the remaining years based on my financial status.
In my opinion, one of the best ways to pay for college (if possible for your degree) is to go to a school that offers a co-op program. You get amazing experience and a boatload more pay than just working a summer job (2-3 times more). In addition, co-op pay through a legitimate co-op program does not count toward your income up to a certain amount (which is actually quite high as I never reached it). It is classified as a scholarship and therefore exempt when computing expected family contributions and additional financial aid. Most kids i knew at my university averaged $65,000 or more in total co-op wages over 4-5 years.

That was my first thought about that situation also.

But my query was real. Is there a reason that you can not apply for financial aid when your other resources are exhausted? It’s been a long time since I was in college but I have a daughter who will be attending college in a few years.

“Regarding the financial aid question – why does this family not just use the money they have to send the child to college and, once that money is spent, apply for financial aid at that point?”

Because then you would actually have to be honest and not try to get free money out of the system that is designed for people who don’t have a small amount of cash on hand. Why would anyone want to do a thing like that?*

*sarcasm

Just wanted to comment on advice you gave to a reader about purchasing a crib at a yard sale – I don’t know what the laws are in the USA, but in Canada, there are a few things that one can’t re-sell at a yard sale. Baby cribs are one of those items, child car seats are the other. Missing parts or older, unsafe cribs can cause harm. Car seats ‘expire’; the plastic degrades and weakens over time, compromising safety.

Wonderful blog – I enjoy it daily!

Chris.

There are several options, all differenting depending on your situation. If you are truly trying to get the most “free dollars” (aka grants), and you were going to entertain “giving the money to a family member”, then I would say it would be better to open a mutual fund and leave the money in there until your oldest child turns 16. Then on each child’s 16th birthday, put 25% out (if we are “being fair”) and open a Roth IRA in their name (as long as they have a part time job they can have an IRA – parents are allowed to put up to the max for the year into their child’s IRA – transfering weath tax free). This is of course assuming you were going to give the money away (in the end not using the money for education at all… then why not use it for retirement). Here’s why, 2 reasons, 1) Retirment accounts ARE NOT included in the FAFSA calculation! They won’t be counted against them for fed or state aid and 2) You will be teaching them to save in their own retirment account that will have many years to compound before retiremnt! Again, this is only one way if you were going to give the money away anyway to use for your children’s future and it not count against them in the FAFSA calculation.

One more thought, if you were “being fair” and was going to split the money between the four children, you have to remeber that they my not all go to college, but I bet God willing, they will retire one day (sooner than us if they set up IRAs at 16)!

Of course there are better/other options for college savings! I have so many “out of the box” ideas. Wish I had more time to share!

That makes me grateful my blog is only visited by a handful of people a day–I couldn’t handle the things you deal with, honestly. I think I’m going to keep my blog’s purpose simply for my own enjoyment, and not be so jealous of your success and monetary gain from it. That’s a good lesson to learn for me–there’s always a dark side to success. Thanks, Trent.

I definitely think the system is screwed up, because, as Trent said, it rewards families that are irresponsible with their money. I think the reason college tuition is so astronomically expensive is, in part, to make up for all the financial aid colleges are providing. Tuition keeps increasing so that fewer and fewer people can afford it, and those who can are shouldering the cost of those who are getting financial aid.

Still, I hardly see that as a reason to try to cheat. I don’t know anything about the legality of the scheme Trent proposed, but it certainly seems unethical, and I was a bit surprised to see Trent suggest it (sorry, but I don’t buy that the intention was to suggest giving the money as a no-strings-attached gift; the original wording was pretty clear that the intention was to give the money to a trusted relative who will give it back when the child is in college).

Also, an fyi for later on in life, if your student persues a post bachelor degree, they are considered independent and the parents’ money will no longer count in their assessment of financial need.