That being said, it's certainly a conspiracy, whether it's legal or not.
College tuition and fees have outpaced inflation for 50 years. Universities are addicted to money, and are more than happy to consign students and their parents to lifetime of debt.
Student loans are bad enough - adding parent loans on top of them is outrageous.
(Of course for decades schools considered home equity a form of cash that they could simply tax or confiscate as desired. Now of course homes are unaffordable so fewer parents have home equity anyway.)
Since scholarships are deducted from financial need, they typically save the school money (by reducing the grant portion of financial aid) but do little to reduce the amount of money that students and their parents are required to pay.
When I applied to college in 1972 or 1973, the financial-aid assessment wanted to know about my parents' home equity. I do not remember the details, what with the lapse of almost 50 years, but I remember being shocked.
That being said, it's certainly a conspiracy, whether it's legal or not.
College tuition and fees have outpaced inflation for 50 years. Universities are addicted to money, and are more than happy to consign students and their parents to lifetime of debt.
Student loans are bad enough - adding parent loans on top of them is outrageous.
(Of course for decades schools considered home equity a form of cash that they could simply tax or confiscate as desired. Now of course homes are unaffordable so fewer parents have home equity anyway.)
Since scholarships are deducted from financial need, they typically save the school money (by reducing the grant portion of financial aid) but do little to reduce the amount of money that students and their parents are required to pay.