Thanks for the clarification.
My overall point stands, though. The CSS asks this:
“Enter the total amount you expect to receive from your relatives and all other sources.”
So I am wondering, OP, how you plan to position this in the article? Are there loopholes that would allow an applicant to ethically and legally omit that questions—even when money will be made available from grandparents?
My child’s college costs were almost entirely funded by a grandparent who gave a set amount every year for about 6 or 7 years, 10k was the limit for tax free gifts at the time (early 2000s) I believe, and we received the gifts starting when she was in middle school. Grandparent created a trust in the child’s name with parent as trustee. The trust was invested over time and increased in value enough that it covered all undergrad expenses- of course tuition was less then- she graduated from college in 2009. Daughter had a small merit scholarship but we did not even fill out a FAFSA. The trust was written so that the $ could only be spent on educational expenses and anything remaining belonged to our daughter at age 30. It could have been used for travel or other educational experiences but she used it all for college, including one semester abroad. It was a fabulous arrangement even though we had to pay taxes on the earnings of the trust. We took money from the trust itself to pay the taxes. The best gift for all of us is that she graduated debt free. I only hope that I can help a future grandchild or 2 the same way.- that is my goal, anyway.