Most most multi-generational Americans aren’t any more knowledgeable than your immigrant parents about college finances.
How are you going to make sure that a good amount of your savings won’t count?
My major is environmental studies, so most of the colleges I want to apply to are (other than Yale and Tufts) LACs. The two colleges that I think I have a pretty decent shot at getting merit scholarships at are Dickinson and St Lawrence. These are my match/safety schools academically. Financially I have to look more into it.
Richard Stockton University can be my financial safety, though, if nothing else goes right.
@belknappoint - that’s what we have to find out LOL
One thing you can do right now is learn about fin aid. I used finaid.org for the basics, though my kids are now past all that. Some like the book, Financial Aid for Dummies. I don’t know that your parents can divert money between now and December 31 and expect the colleges not to notice.
Some slimy “college financial planners” try to convince parents to put their life savings into an insurance annuity so that it doesn’t count as an asset for FAFSA purposes. DO NOT let your parents get talked into that! The “college financial planner” pockets a large commission and your parents are stuck with an illiquid bad investment.
There is a limit on what your parents can put into a retirement account in one year. Plus money added to a retirement account is added back as income for the year. The balance in the accounts don’t count as assets…but the contributions in that year are added back in as income.
Or if they put money into a Roth IRA (subject to annual limitation) it is not added back to income because it is not deductible from invome.
Please, this is just not going to work.
And to add to what @madison85 stated in post #45: http://www.forbes.com/sites/troyonink/2010/12/16/bad-college-advice-stash-your-childs-assets-in-an-annuity/
But still…there is a limit on what can be contributed annually to a Roth.
To the OP…the financial aid formulas are heavily weighted towards income. You may be doing all these financial aid gymnastics for no financial aid gain…at all.
In addition, the very vast majority of colleges do not guarantee to meet financial need for all accepted students.