<p>I think the key is in the word "justifiable" -- an item where a specific need can be shown. All this falls under the category of "professional judgment" - areas where financial aid officials have discretion to make adjustments:
<a href="http://www.finaid.org/educators/pj/%5B/url%5D">http://www.finaid.org/educators/pj/</a></p>
<p>I don't think it would be wise for anyone to deliberately take on this sort of debt simply in the hopes of reducing EFC. In the first place, most of the time it won't work -- you are more likely to run into a stingy financial aid office than a generous one. Secondly, no matter how a debt or expense can be applied to reduce EFC, it is almost never dollar-for-dollar --it is going to be subtracted out somewhere and the EFC is going to be reduced by some percentage that is less than the total amount. So financially, you are unlikely to come out as well as you would be if you hadn't spent the money in the first place. </p>
<p>I would note that the CSS Profile does ask about expenses for private school tuition for siblings, and that this amount is often considered to reduce EFC under institutional methodology. Back when my son was in college, his younger sister was in public school, but attending a pre-professional ballet school after school, and my studio fees were running about $4000 a year. I entered that amount in the CSS Profile under the section for private tuition, indicating the name of the dance studio -- my rationale was simply that it was a "school" (i.e., "school of dance") -- and I paid for it, therefore it was a form of private tuition even though it was not for the academic day school. So I can see how the co-worker may have also been able to get some consideration for the fees he paid for ice time for his hockey players. I could see justification for expenses for summer programs like CTY under the same rationale. I think that as long as the parent is honest in describing the expenses, there certainly is no harm in listing those items under the appropriate category on the CSS Profile. </p>
<p>The rationale on the college's end for allowing those expenses is that they want future applicants who are the beneficiaries of that level of education and training. In other words, private colleges like to see applicants who come from quality private schools; they like to see applicants who have years of musical training; they like to see applicants who are strong athletes. So it makes sense for them to allow financially needy families to make those kind of expenses geared to the development of future college applicants. </p>
<p>But again -- you can't count on gettting any of this written off. All you can do is provide the numbers. I have no evidence that my son's college actually considered that expense -- they probably didn't -- all I did was opt to list it and let them make the decision as to whether to consider it.</p>