<p>I'd disagree with this: "If the student has $3000 in their savings, you are not going to net much by moving it into parent accounts."</p>
<p>There's no asset protection allowance, so Profile will assess 25% of every dime in the student's name. That means that the $3K will increase your EFC by $750 the first year (and reduce the potential aid by that amount), and if it's still there the second year, it will bump the EFC by $750 the second year as well.</p>
<p>Agree with spending down the student accounts on major needed items before filing the Profile (or FAFSA). Transferring the funds to a parent's account would also help, since parent's get an asset protection allowance, and the savings over that amount are assessed at a much lower rate. But that would probably be considered dishonest by a FAO (who may see the interest reported on the tax returns, as noted above).</p>
<p>The student could also contribute some of these assets to a retirement account, where they would be sheltered. There's new rules on 529 college accounts, as well, that provide for sheltering some student assets (check on the details-- I'm not fully up on this).</p>
<p>Also-- keep student income under $3,300 so the student income doesn't get assessed.</p>