<p>
</p>
<p>This site is full of threads from families who make 6 figure incomes and own homes worth mid- to high 6 figures who want colleges and/or the goverment to pay for college because they live in an expensive area, or their rental properties cost more than they’re taking in, or they spent so much on private high schools that they haven’t been able to save for college, etc. Survivor benefits are limited funds for the child designed to help pay for the care and upkeep the father no longer can provide. If there is a class trip all the other dads are writing checks for, this family is certainly within its’ rights to save up the survivor benefits to pay for it. Financial aid is based on income, savings, assets, etc. I don’t believe the people giving it make value judgments on how you spend your money. They plug your income into a formula and determine what you should be able to pay. If you haven’t saved enough to cover your EFC, in most cases they don’t care why. If a $5,000 trip to Europe ate all 4 years of this student’s EFC, they aren’t high income anyway. Happily, whether or not the people on this site believe this child deserves aid, and their opinion on the importance, or lack thereof, of her mother’s marital status, her dad’s sexual orientation, and the fact that she lost her dad at an early age will have no bearing whatsoever on the aid s/he will qualify for from either colleges or the government. Nor should it.</p>