Certainly an awesome way to penalize (again) parents in high cost-of-living areas. Home equity is only really useful when you sell your house. Nobody should be expected to sell their house to pay college tuition.
Exactly. Were income and equity to be weighted depending on cost of living and average cost of a home in the state of residence then it would be easier to swallow.
A family living in SF on $200k would basically be borderline homeless whereas on 100k in South Dakota would be living large.
When I hear of some of the scams - people with 3rd world family and joint income >800k sending their kids back to get better scholarship money, taking on ridiculous mortgages just to lower their home equity - I am not making this up, it is nauseating.
