If a student is in the fortunate position of having grandparents who are willing to help pay for college, check out these two articles, here and here, with advice from expert Mark Kantrowitz on how to lessen what can be a corresponding negative impact on financial aid eligibility.
Like all of Kantrowitz’s advice, he’s not advocating that families should avoid paying their fair share, or that affluent families should hide their money so they can get more financial aid. He’s simply pointing out how the mechanics of financial aid calculations (in which grandparent contributions will always be factored) work, and how seemingly simple decisions, like the type of account in which the money is saved, can make big differences in those calculations.
In the same way that families can try to lessen their tax liability, there’s a difference between being smart and being deceptive. Kantrowitz’s advice, particularly around how to avoid mistakes that can cost you, falls on the smart side of the spectrum.