<p>AngryStudent13 , I am in Washington State, so I am not at all familiar with the Blue and Gold program – but I do know that details make all the difference. </p>
<p>For instance, the legislative statue or minutes of the college trustee board might very well say something along the lines of “The Blue and Gold program will apply to California residents who have an adjusted gross income of $80K or less AND who have less than $50K in assets”. </p>
<p>In that (hypothetical) case, the word “AND” is huge. It means that both parts of the statement must apply to the student before the student qualifies for B&G money. </p>
<p>I am sorry to tell you this, but any college in the nation ABSOLUTELY would consider money in “CD’s” to be money available to pay for a student’s fees. A “CD” simply is a type of savings. To be sheltered from the hungry tuition monster, the money would have to be in retirement funds (and not just something labeled in your or parents’ mind as “retirement” – it has to be in official IRA type funds)</p>
<p>You are right that a CD or bond is not EARNED income (ie, you didn’t wait tables or paint houses and get paid with a CD or bond) but what interest is earned IS income and the whole kit and caboodle ARE “assets” which a college would expect your family to tap to pay for your bills. </p>
<p>That money in an educational fund is money the college is looking at, saying “Oh, goody! There’s money for us!”. And they are right. It is money your family has set aside for your education. The smart thing to do is spend it down and keep filling out the FAFSA each year. </p>
<p>Bad scenario: Have,say, $40K in an educational piggy bank but student hangs on to it and borrows money freshman year and every year afterwards and never qualifies for aid. Ends up with lots of loans.
Better scenario: Student spends $20K to pay for freshman and gets no aid. Student spends $20K sophomore year and gets no aid. Student then applies to FAFSA and gets big aid for junior year because assets for student now equal zero. </p>
<p>Please get “Paying for college without going broke” (Princeton Review) which lays this out well. </p>
<p>Please also know that you are very, very blessed if your family has $220K in assets. It may be painful to part with some of it for your college but please know thousands of people not only lack any assets, they also OWE thousands in debt and cannot help their kids with college in any way.</p>