"Wealthy parents have found a new, totally legal trick to game the college admissions system — transferring guardianship of their teens to relatives or friends so the kids can cry poor on their financial-aid applications," the New York Post reports.

"... Under the plan, deep-pocketed families go through the courts to legally transfer guardianship of their college-bound kids, at which point the teens can claim independent student status and have only their monetary resources documented by financial-aid bean-counters, the report said.

'Our financial-aid resources are limited and the practice of wealthy parents transferring the guardianship of their children to qualify for need-based financial aid — or so-called opportunity hoarding — takes away resources from middle- and low-income students,' Andrew Borst, director of undergraduate enrollment at the University of Illinois, told The Journal. 'This is legal, but we question the ethics.'

...

College admissions and government officials are probing the strategy, according to the report, but it seems to be technically legal.

'They are gaming the system,' countered Justin Draeger, head of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, to The Journal. 'Whether it is legal or not doesn’t make it any less unsavory.'"

NASFAA's "Notable Headlines" section highlights media coverage of financial aid to help members stay up to date with the latest news. Articles included under the notable headlines section are not written by NASFAA, but rather by external sources. Inclusion in Today's News does not imply endorsement of the material or guarantee the accuracy of information presented.

Publication Date: 7/30/2019