I am not a lawyer, and am not trying to give legal advice, but one of the main issues in business vs. personal liability is determining if, in fact, the business is separate from a person.
If there is no “corporate veil” (that is, no corporate minutes, no real employees, no corporate taxes, etc.) then such structures could be considered a sham. If the company owes taxes to the IRS, for payroll, etc., those could possibly have the first claim on the money, so the fate of the money depends on a lot of factors.
Regarding college financial aid, it would be assumed that your transfer of money to a business results in a higher value of the stock of that business. So, all you did was shift assets from your own cash to your shareholdings – your net worth did not change.
If you shift them to someone else’s name and then shift them back, it could (rightly) be considered a sham transaction by the IRS, the other person could owe back taxes, lots of risks, etc.
Try to look at having the money to pay for college as a blessing!
In terms of asset protection, you might find these links useful (no affiliation):
