<p>Momzie</p>
<p>Recently read that College Board guide to filling out the FAFSA and practically choked on the stories about how to keep your ASSETS high and your INCOME low, so that you too can live in a 2 million dollar apartment in NYC and send your kids to private school and still get financial aid. (I picture myself working two jobs while some rich lady gets her nails done – so that I can subsidize her kids’ college tuition. Ain’t America grand?)
is offline </p>
<p>04-30-2012, 08:55 AM #42
mommusic
Senior Member</p>
<p>^I thought the CSS Profile took care of situations where people had above-average assets but wanted finaid?</p>
<p>Hi. Apologies in advance as I can’t seem to get CC’s quote function to work but I’d like to share a couple of reflections here. </p>
<p>First, re: above - in my town there are lots of rumors (!) circulating about well heeled folks using services (we all know them) to hide assets and income; doing stuff like purchasing a beach or taking a second mortgage on house and spending the money for extension/construction. I agree that CSS should make that impossible but players say it is all a game to lower your EFC (and those players want to be paid handsomely to fix your books). Hopefully folks that turn up hobnobbing at Ivy events having scammed their funding will one day be held to task by someone who can put two and two together (or perhaps they’ll just be toasted). And, btw, I’d love to read threads about just how folks pull the mathematical wool over such esteemed institutions eyes.</p>
<p>However, I did seek such insider advice and here is one ‘hard lesson’ I learned; ‘professional’ insisted that important criteria is to get in to ‘school of choice’; once in/accepted, institution will do what it can (‘the package’) to entice student; and don’t check off box needing aid. </p>
<p>That was not my experience. I found in each of the institutions I approached glad handing admission ‘deans’ or assistants happy to talk shop about bells and whistles of their school. But schools had a firewall when it came to any discussion of aid or cost; none of the ‘happy people’ talked money, and I’ll not name schools but I found each department of “financial aid” (really the ‘good luck, you are own your own’ folks) woefully staffed by people who do not want to talk to you. They just want your money.</p>
<p>Finally, some of the threads here about how college is ‘just not that expensive’ defy belief. The insanity of a quarter of a million dollars for an undergrad education should speak for itself however giving our country’s next bestseller will undoubtedly be Edward Conards book Unintended Consequences: Why Everything Youve Been Told About the Economy Is Wrong - digging through the lies, damn lies and statistics has never seemed more daunting.</p>
<p>Last thoughts: </p>
<p>“After all, tuition and fees have increased 184% in 20 years after accounting for inflation, but wages for college grads have risen just 9%, according to Labor Department data.” </p>
<p>[College:</a> ‘Best Investment’ or Big Risk? - SmartMoney.com](<a href=“Stock investment news - MarketWatch”>http://www.smartmoney.com/invest/stocks/college-best-investment-or-big-risk-1336169253802/)</p>