<p>LB, you obviously are totally ignorant about how the financial aid system works. If you think that spending your money down is going to get you a “full ride” for your daughter…then you obviously don’t know the first thing about how it works. You’d need to quit your job, too, because it is your income that disqualifies your daughter from need based aid. Paying off your mortgage won’t help – the private colleges all look your home equity. There aren’t many colleges that guarantee to meet the FAFSA EFC of all of its students – all the private colleges ask for CSS Profile and they want to know the value of retirement assets as well as home equity and just about everywhere else you could think to hide your money. My daughter’s FAFSA EFC last year was less than $6000, but she had an award in a college that purportedly meets full need of all its applicants that would have required us to pay around $25K.</p>
<p>Or are you planning to insist that your daughter apply to a college that will give her a full ride for merit aid?
I can’t decide whether those are merely the words of a fool or the ravings of a lunatic. It will be interesting to see how you explain to your daughter that she can’t go to her first choice college because you can’t swing the payments, while you are driving around in that $60K Mercedes.</p>