Have you run the NPC’s at the schools you’re thinking of?
There’s really no way to hide it as income at this point. As far as I know there are only a couple things like FSA and HSA contributions from payroll deduction that aren’t added back in, nothing that you can lump sum invest. The question is what to do with it next year before filing FAFSA. If you put it in a retirement account it won’t be counted as an asset, but you won’t have it available to help pay for college either. If you don’t have a lot of savings and are higher income, I would think taking the 5.6% hit to EFC and having the money would be preferable.