<p>My problem with that theory ^^^^^, is that IF the family can afford the school but CHOOSE not to pay that amount, why should a school feel it necessary to pick up the slack? That $$$ is better served to a student who has no alternatives,parents who REALLY can’t afford the tuition…The OP’s parents can do what they want,but if the info the OP posts is true, shame on the parents…I wonder if they also have a yacht ;)</p>
<p>IF the family can afford the school but CHOOSE not to pay that amount, why should a school feel it necessary to pick up the slack? That $$$ is better served to a student who has no alternatives,parents who REALLY can’t afford the tuition.</p>
<p>If that were the position of schools, then FAFSA/CSS, would not “protect” any of parents assets at all. All assets would be assumed to be available for college - but, as we know, that isn’t the position of colleges or FAFSA/CSS. They understand that just because parents have X in a family savings account, doesn’t mean that X or even half of X is available for college. Thankfully, colleges realize that families need to have savings for family emergencies, other children’s college needs, and such. </p>
<p>Using your theory, a school would see that a family has - say - $100k in various assets and say, “Every dollar needs to go to college since there are families that have $0 in assets.” Such a theory would just further undermine people’s need to save money and also would encourage illegal hiding of assets.</p>
<p>Of course, if a family has substantial assets, that’s a different story and FAFSA/CSS takes that into consideration.</p>
<p>^^Agree the schools are under no obligation to increase aid unless there is a reason that is not obvious from the finaid forms. I personally can’t criticize families that won’t fund expensive colleges regardless of their “wealth.” I just think that is such an intensely personal decision. Just knowing what has “happened” career-wise with our friends from college on, there just isn’t much discernable economic difference between our prep school/Ivy friends, our flagship friends, my small LAC education, my H’s mid-tier public we’re all pretty much in the same places in life give or take…so much of what happens is predicated on so many other factors that I’m pretty much on the side of “parent choice” yacht or no yacht. There’s a huge dfiference between families saying they won’t pay anything for their kids college when they have the ability and saying they will fund the cost of the state publics but won’t pay additional for a private or OSS costs of a public or some such scenario.</p>
<p>^^^exactly. We all want more money for college. The schools use their formulas for determining need and the family uses theirs. I suspect those two numbers rarely coincide. It’s not the school’s responsibility to make financial decisions for the family.</p>
<p>*There’s a huge difference between families saying they won’t pay anything for their kids college when they have the ability and saying they will fund the cost of the state publics but won’t pay additional for a private or OSS costs of a public or some such scenario. *</p>
<p>True…and no one expects a family to use the majority of their savings to put one child thru college. </p>
<p>Most need analysis formulas shelter $35,000 to $60,000 of the parents’ assets, depending on the age of the older parent. For most families of college-age children the asset protection allowance (APA) will be around $45,000 to $50,000. </p>
<p>For amounts more than than the APA, only a percentage is expected to be used for college - not an amount that puts a big hole in their savings.</p>
<p>Sounds as if the parents did not have dedicated college savings. But we have no idea what their savings is, and what the projected “hole” would be? If the savings are $40K and the hole is $35K, that’s one thing. But if savings are above $150K and the hole is $80K, that’s another animal entirely! In any case, this appeal likely has very little chance of success in these day of true hard luck stories.</p>
<p>*If the savings are $40K and the hole is $35K, that’s one thing. But if savings are above $150K and the hole is $80K, that’s another animal entirely! *</p>
<p>Not really. What if they have more than one child to put thru college.</p>