| There are really three or four different questions:
(1) Using education-specific assets, like 529 plans, or trust funds for the student. Of course the college should expect that to be used over four years, although some seem to make allowances for possible graduate school use.
(2) Using student savings from jobs, etc. That seems a little more controversial to me.
(3) Using parent retirement-type savings. Bad, but taken into account. Home equity is similar, and lots of colleges assume that it should be available.
(4) Using illiquid, indivisible business assets of parents -- family businesses, a farm. There may be value there, but it may be totally unmonetizable, or it may be wildly imprudent to try to monetize it by borrowing against it. Colleges differ a lot on how they deal with these types of assets, and Chicago has never seemed to be especially sophisticated or sympathetic about the issues involved. |