I’m guessing that families who have $0 EFC and get significant financial aid are taking more modest vacations…or staycations anyway.
My definition of vacation is when the passport is used.
There are many ways people can hide their income. More power to them. I knew a family that owned multiple restaurants in NYC and was getting a full FA to Dalton. They kid had more toys and clothes than my kid. What are you going to do?
Ok then we haven’t any vacation since last century either.
@“Erin’s Dad”, yes, they do. These friends take at least one great vacation per year since I have known them that the H won. He enters a lot of contests and tries out for game shows, etc. My ex-H once won a free salmon fishing trip to Alaska, too – we had a great time. 
If you only have one child, it’s possible to tack a vacation on to the beginning or end of a summer, but for my kids, one gets out in early May and her sister not for an additional 2-3 weeks. Same at Christmas, with at least a 10 day difference in when their finals are done, and another 2-3 weeks difference in the start of spring term. One left Wednesday to go back to school, the other doesn’t start until Aug 29.
My sister has started traveling with her family for a week at Thanksgiving. She’s a teacher and that works for her. We got lucky a few years ago when my kids were still in high school and got to take a cruise Christmas week for a bargain rate. I’d do that again in a second.
Between my siblings we have 6 kids all together. We have been going on vacations together every year since they were babies. We have some how managed to go early Jun, right after they were out of school and before their summer internships. Some young adults with a full time job would come for a long weekend if they couldn’t get away for a whole week, but we have all made it a high priority.
Gee, if a vacation is when a passport is used then I go on vacations every other month. (I hop over to Canada when we want to spend some time at a casino without smoke.)
It’s a very specific slice of the population that considers using a passport a prerequisite for a vacation… and I highly, highly doubt those people are getting financial aid at anywhere but the tippy top schools.
Oh and by that definition, I haven’t gone on a vacation since I was 2- and that was because my grandma was dying.
By what I think is most people’s definition- at least 2 days away from home specifically for leisure- I went on a few while on FA.
Geez, I haven’t been on an airplane for 15 years (and we are full pay). Only vacations are car trips to see extended family.
We all tend to think WE are the norm. It is hard to think otherwise, and we tend to be friends who are similar to us.
A mid June vacation would be the worst for my daughter. She’s out of school the first week of may and needs to be back at her school on Monday. If she has a job, that’s smack in the middle.
This is a family decision…just like how much allowance to give to college students. YMMV depending on the family.
Our kids only overlapped college for one year. But their schedules were radically different. DS started at Labor Day…and was on semesters. DD started about the 20th of Sept and was on quarters. DS was done in May. DD wasn’t done until mid June.
When DD worked here in the summer as a lifeguard, she got a ton of hours between mid August and mid September…because most of the other college students returned to college in August.
We have been on vacations but not in summer…mostly because we really like it HERE in the summer! And so do,our kids who visit us here!
Well, if we are counting using a passport as taking a vacation, then it’s been just over a quarter of a century.
My definition of vacation is a trip you take because you want to rather than because you need to. It could be to somewhere near home. I went on a vacation three weeks ago and enjoyed it thoroughly. It didn’t even involve getting on an airplane; my destination was within driving distance.
If I only counted using a passport as taking a vacation, then I haven’t been on a vacation since 1976.
Geez if you define vacation as a passport or plane ride, that will be pricey. It’s possible where I live to enjoy a quick getaway with a two hour car ride to the jersey shore. That’s a vacation to me.
1st off you have to define financial aid. It’s people who make $100,000 a year that qualify for aid at schools like MIT, Davidson, Ivys etc.Someone might not qualify for Pell Grant but still get some form of aid from the school.
2nd If a vacation is something that requires a passport then I only had one vacation in my entire life.
We used to take 2 or 3 week vacations every summer to different parts of the country when the kids were younger. (“Passport required” not part of my definition of a vacation!). Now with both in college our time and money is much more limited. This summer we are only able to get away to the local mountains for a weekend. My kids have been working all summer and now that they are home for a couple weeks before returning to school, my H is already back at school (as a teacher). So a weekend getaway is all there is time for. I call this a getaway or mini-vacation—my definition of vacation requires more time.
To answer the OP. We do receive FA (two kids in college, both at “meets full need” schools). While we have limited our vacations, we still manage (when we have the time—mostly winter break) to take vacations. This is because as one poster above put it "Some people may live in modest homes and drive modest cars, and spend their discretionary income on travel instead. " Though, we don’t spend a lot on travel either…everything is in moderation.
If what OP meant was if it is fair for rich families somehow get huge financial aids and taking luxurious vacations and maintain extravagant lifestyle, when they could instead pay more tuition and let the FA go to whom actually need them, I guess not.
I took vacations during grad school while on full financial aid. I saved up and we went really cheap (all inclusives, shared rooms).
I’ve never heard of grad schools that provide financial aid. Funding packages, sure, but not need based aid.