Per WSJ:
Amid an intense national furor over the fairness of college admissions, the Education Department is looking into a tactic that has been used in some suburbs, in which wealthy parents transfer legal guardianship of their college-bound children to relatives or friends so the teens can claim financial aid, say people familiar with the matter....
Wealthy parents say they followed the strategy laid out by a college consultant company called Destination College, based in Lincolnshire, Ill. The company says on its website it has saved families as much $40,000 a year per student. The website doesn't specify how...
The owner of the company, Lora Georgieva, didn't respond to requests for comment. Other people who said they are clients of the firm and spoke to the Journal said they were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement to not disclose her strategy of transferring guardianship.....
So far, several schools have been named: U of Chicago, Illinois, Michigan, etc. There is no evidence the schools knew, though there is some question if they should have known. Obviously, this means wealthy parents were basically stealing financial aid that could be used for lower income students that might not otherwise have the opportunity. In fact, this aid can often come from donor endowments or federal grants, so if I was an alum of these schools, or as a taxpayer, I'm not be a happy camper.
There is another factor at play here and the Varsity Blues scandal, in that college costs are so high they are inducing corrupt practices by both colleges and parents.
Amid an intense national furor over the fairness of college admissions, the Education Department is looking into a tactic that has been used in some suburbs, in which wealthy parents transfer legal guardianship of their college-bound children to relatives or friends so the teens can claim financial aid, say people familiar with the matter....
Wealthy parents say they followed the strategy laid out by a college consultant company called Destination College, based in Lincolnshire, Ill. The company says on its website it has saved families as much $40,000 a year per student. The website doesn't specify how...
The owner of the company, Lora Georgieva, didn't respond to requests for comment. Other people who said they are clients of the firm and spoke to the Journal said they were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement to not disclose her strategy of transferring guardianship.....
So far, several schools have been named: U of Chicago, Illinois, Michigan, etc. There is no evidence the schools knew, though there is some question if they should have known. Obviously, this means wealthy parents were basically stealing financial aid that could be used for lower income students that might not otherwise have the opportunity. In fact, this aid can often come from donor endowments or federal grants, so if I was an alum of these schools, or as a taxpayer, I'm not be a happy camper.
There is another factor at play here and the Varsity Blues scandal, in that college costs are so high they are inducing corrupt practices by both colleges and parents.