Posted on 07/30/2019 11:28:35 AM PDT by simpson96
Dozens of suburban Chicago families, perhaps many more, have been exploiting a legal loophole to win their children need-based college financial aid and scholarships they would not otherwise receive, court records and interviews show.
Coming months after the national "Varsity Blues" college admissions scandal, this tactic also appears to involve families attempting to gain an advantage in an increasingly competitive and expensive college admissions system.
Parents are giving up legal custody of their children during their junior or senior year in high school to someone else -- a friend, aunt, cousin or grandparent. The guardianship status then allows the students to declare themselves financially independent of their families so they can qualify for federal, state and university aid, a ProPublica Illinois investigation found.
"It's a scam," said Andy Borst, director of undergraduate admissions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "Wealthy families are manipulating the financial aid process to be eligible for financial aid they would not be otherwise eligible for. They are taking away opportunities from families that really need it."(snip)
Borst said he first became suspicious when a high school counselor from an affluent Chicago suburb called him about a year ago to ask why a particular student had been invited to an orientation program for low-income students. Borst checked the student's financial aid application and saw she had obtained a legal guardian, making her eligible to qualify for financial aid independently.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailyherald.com ...
ProPublica is a leftist outfit.
But they have done a good deed here exposing this.
All grants from government should be abolished.
The student loan opportunities should all be private.
There is another loophole that I did not know about.
If you have (hypothetically speaking), a daughter at home that marries another student and neither one really has income or assets, they are a “household” for income and financial need purposes, even if the married students are living with one set of parents.
“All grants from government should be abolished.”
including the GI Bill?
What the hell were they expecting? I’ve told others to do stuff that’s somewhat similar, but perfectly legal.
It would seem if they gave up custody, they could not claim them as a dependent with the IRS. True or false?
Go to Harvard’s website and look up tuition... It is totally based on income. How is that permitted? And if it’s ok, why shouldn’t that be done for buying a house or a car?
I would hope they aren’t after 18 as it would be fraud.
I don’t think the G.I. bill is a grant. One must earn the benefits with time served.
The whole thing is a scam. The Federal Government, which is broke, provides Pell grants, low interest, likely to default loans, and various forms of aid so that students have funds to get an “education” at hugely overpriced private and public universities. Of course the funds assure that a politically loyal group of teachers, administrators and staff too byzantine to define, have high pay and superb benefits.Why is it surprising in modern day decadent and hedonistic America that there are parents who would disown and disavow their children to get free stuff?. One day there will be a reckoning when the ultimate default comes. When it happens the reaper won’t be wearing a cap and gown.
Even the one [gasp!] that I get?
Maybe they did the responsible thing, realizing they were not very good parents and the kids ended up with a much needed education/s
I do not know if this is still true..
When my kid went to college he quit after the first year....
I told him if he was not going to college he would have to move out....
He got his own apartment...
When he went back to school he was considered on this own and was offered more aid..
This was CSU at Boulder
College is a waste of money unless you are taking math and science and business..
Why is my tax dollars going for someone else’s college education? I paid for mine. We paid for our kids’. You want to go to college, then get a private scholarship and a job. I’ve been hollering this needs to be ended. Of course, no one listens to me.
Exactly. The GI Bill is for those who EARN it through military service. Other opportunities are available for those willing to work in medicine in an underserved area, a host of tribal scholarships, and such. Anything else can be with your own dime and own arrangements.
The taxpayer doesn't owe you free or subsidized tuition because you were born with a certain DNA or into a certain group. Private philanthropy, college endowments and others can cover that.
The scam only works because employers have consumed the Kool-Aid.
If getting a pricey degree from a prestigious school did not sway employers at hiring time, it would quit happening.
I got accepted to a rather elite school as a kid. I did not go because my dad thought it was too expensive.
In hindsight I should have borrowed an arm and a leg and part of the other arm and gone. Because employers see that school on your resume, they have their multiple orgasm, then they cut you a check.
Wow :(
I didn’t have time before, but given that the ‘national hero’ who shoved Common Core down our throats now runs the College Board and has promised to add an ‘Adversity Score’ to SATs (secret, by the way, you’ll never be able to see it, only the colleges), one has to consider responding. In that case, to raise the score for your kids, you need to do things like (fake) ‘divorce’, officially turning your household into single-income, live in a crappy house, in a (relatively) crappy area, etc.
The game has to be played against them, by THEIR set of rules until the rules change, just as Trump has been doing regarding the Democrats. When, and less likely if, things change to a more civil and just set of rules, then we can revert to again being civil and just.
Pilot or plumber seem to provide a pretty good cash flow.
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