<p>The donor pays the gift taxes so your parents would have to pay gift taxes on 200,000 which would probably not be trivial and which would likely be more than a year at your in-state flagship.</p>
<p>I have heard of parents shifting money as you describe and getting lots of need-based aid. Perhaps they didn’t report the gifts or perhaps the money was held in foreign accounts to begin with so there wouldn’t be any US transfer issues involved. It feels highly unfair to those that play by the rules.</p>