<p>Well, while it doesn’t officially look at assets, I think this is the key statement:</p>
<h1>Demonstrate income below $80,000 with financial need, as determined for federal need-based aid program</h1>
<p>If you have high assets and your EFC from FAFSA is higher than the school cost, you would not be showing ‘financial need’. With 200k+ in CDs, I would guess that the EFC is pretty high.</p>