<p>There are really three or four different questions:</p>
<p>(1) Using education-specific assets, like 529 plans, or trust funds for the student. Of course the college should expect that to be used over four years, although some seem to make allowances for possible graduate school use.</p>
<p>(2) Using student savings from jobs, etc. That seems a little more controversial to me.</p>
<p>(3) Using parent retirement-type savings. Bad, but taken into account. Home equity is similar, and lots of colleges assume that it should be available.</p>
<p>(4) Using illiquid, indivisible business assets of parents -- family businesses, a farm. There may be value there, but it may be totally unmonetizable, or it may be wildly imprudent to try to monetize it by borrowing against it. Colleges differ a lot on how they deal with these types of assets, and Chicago has never seemed to be especially sophisticated or sympathetic about the issues involved.</p>
<p>JHS -
I'm actually not that surprized that more colleges are looking at retirement funds - for a long time, that was a protected place to save money, as opposed to putting it in a bank account or home equity or (more recently) a 529. When my son applied to colleges, the only one he applied to that asked for retirement fund info was Brandeis - Chicago is asking for it now, and if some of the threads are on Parent's forum are any guide, so are many others. Retirement assets are, it seems, no longer sacrosact. </p>
<p>All families are different, and there is no question in my mind the the financial aid calculations are harsher in some situations than others - Consolation's combination of decent assets and moderate income is one such situation. Another is families with farms: FA offices just don't understand weather.</p>
<p>On another note, I bumped into a parent whose kid is on the wait list a few weeks ago, and he told me that their understanding is that when it comes time to take kids off the list, they have a sort of round robin/draft pick arrangement, where each regional adcom gets to pick a kid in turn. He said that his kid's adcom had told him that he was at the top of his list.</p>
<p>(This is what I actually came here to post, before I was distracted by the FA thing! :) )</p>
<p>IMO the most ridiculous assumption in financial aid is that divorced and re-married parents provide the student 4 independent pools of income and assets. Expecting the birth parents to pay is certainly fair, but assuming that step-father or step-mother will provide $50,000 a year out of their assets or income is assinine.</p>
<p>^^ That technique sounds like the best, as the regional counselors are all the most in tune with their applicants.</p>
<p>In semi-related news, I went to a conference on grad school admissions today and the grad school deans described a scene I thought was probably universally familiar: the admissions committee sees two or three roughly equivalently wonderful students, and only has the resources to take one. Who are they going to take and why? It's a whole reality show waiting to happen, all we need is a Tyra Banks or a Padma Lakshmi.</p>
<p>There already has been a college admissions reality show. Entitled something like "The Scholar"? The Columbia admissions officer who did our info session there was one of the judges.</p>
<p>
[quote]
There already has been a college admissions reality show. Entitled something like "The Scholar"? The Columbia admissions officer who did our info session there was one of the judges.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>YES. I saw this show (my friend's mom thought it would be a good show for our self-edification or something like that) and the same dude from Columbia gave my info session too! She should have told us to like, read a book or something instead.</p>
<p>But as much as I'd be amused to see college admissions as narrated by Padma (or how about Gordon Ramsay? or the Big Brother hostess?) I think it's important to call attention to how arbitrary things like this are and how very few decisions are clear-cut. (Unless you're the mean person that casting put there for the sake of more drama!) And just like every viewer has favorite models/singers/chefs, I'm sure every adcom has a few applicants that they're stoked about and a few they are just bummed about not being able to admit.</p>
<p>I watched a show from Azn channel ( they don't exist anymore) called Ivy Dreams. It was last year's seniors, they featured four people (asians :p) who applied to Ivy schools. two got in, and two did not. I thought it was a good show. anyone else watched it ?</p>
<p>new news! my college conseulor called and said chicago will not be going to the WL this year but will be keeping a shortlist (i assume this means an extended waitlist). i dont think, however, that we (students personally) should barrage the admissions office with phone calls. anybody know exactly what a shortlist is? good luck, fellow waiters.</p>