[quote=squat300]Would it pay to remortgage the house for fin aid purposes, invest the money? Would the difference between heloc interest and return be less than the inc. tuition?[/quote]
NO!
[quote=squat300]Nowadays it seems like some vets kids get a total free ride. That also seems to me to screw up the market price since they won’t care what tuition is as they’re not paying it[/quote]
scaredy the vet’s kids who get a “free ride” (fees only) are those whose parent has a 100% service-connected disability. In addition, they get ~$831 mo living expenses for 9 months per year. IIRC, the benefit only lasts for four years F/T consisting of 8 semesters (CSU/CC) or 12 quarters (UC). If these students screw up and/or take the wrong classes for their major or changes majors midstream, they are going to end up being out-of-pocket before their college “career” ends. The benefit is only available to legal issue and legal adoptees of the disabled vet and not to persons whose paternity was never determined, stepchildren or children given up for adoption by the disabled vet.
The CalVet program covers students whose parent has LESS than a 100% service-connected disability. For UC, it pays all fees same as above but no living expenses. For CSU/CC, it pays ~$1275 per semester in fees (partial fee-waiver). HOWEVER, there is a BIG CATCH to the CalVet assistance. The student is NOT ALLOWED to make over $11,702 year gross in any tax year they are accepting CalVet assistance for college. If they do, they will be dropped from the program as CalVet orders their recipients’ tax-return info from the FTB every year. This would preclude these students from from accepting slots at CA coastal campuses with a high cost of living unless they received other cash assistance from parents or other relatives, had other available aid, worked a lot “under the table” and/or took out a student loan.
You are correct that UC RIV, UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz are the only UC campus that currently accept solid “B” students. I was told the exact same thing last month by my kid’s counselor at school. The rest of the UC Campuses accept freshmen with avg GPA’s ranging from 3.73 to 4.22. However, incoming juniors (from CC) can often transfer in with a little less than that.
How far is the UC RIV campus from your home, scaredy? Can’t your kid just live at home and attend UC RIV? If it’s more than an hour’s drive one way, he can schedule all his classes on Tues/Thurs and just go twice a week. I think he would be a little “bored” at CC for two years, due to his extremely high SAT score and his “natural inquisitiveness” you often describe here 🙂
