<p>What the OP has suggested is both illegal and immoral. It is illegal because you sign all the various forms saying that the statements are true. You are supposed to report your assets, whether they are in cash or not.</p>
<p>It is immoral because the POINT of the deception is to make other people pay for your education --- -ahh, the famous "OPM: Other People's Money!"
If you get financial aid fraudulently, EITHER you are getting subsidized loans, which means that honest taxpayers are paying the difference between your subsidized rate and the rate you pay, OR you are getting institutional funds donated by alumni who assumed the money was going to kids who could truly not afford it. Either way, it smells like "theft" to me.</p>
<p>OK, quick quiz: Read the following and discern the moral fallacy:</p>
<p>"Yeah, but I had to work to earn that money and I know plenty of people who worked the same amount and then spent it on cars and clothes and such or didn't work at all..." Ask yourself if two wrongs make a right. Ask yourself it is a good argument to say, "Other people are doing it, or doing worse, so I should be able to."</p>
<p>Ask yourself if someone with such a limited grasp of basic logic should be going to college at all!</p>
<p>Now try this one:</p>
<p>"And I don't have THAT much money set aside, I've just worked hard for the amount I've earned and think I deserve to keep it so that I don't have to ask my parents for pocket/book expenses when I'm in college."</p>
<p>I love it - the "I DESERVE it" argument. Imagine if we made THAT one universal! There are taxpayers who find that for every extra $100 they earn, almost $50 goes to federal, state, and local taxes! Imagine if we all got to decide, as individuals, what we "deserve."</p>