nothing new here people, but interesting that one clown didn't know what was going on. basically there is a disincentive to save when applying for financial aid. I've even heard that some people take a 25% - 35% hair-cut from their investments and convince themselves it's not lying because of cap gains taxes. from today's post:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06292008/gossip/pagesix/harvard_can_drive_you_crazy_117625.htm

June 29, 2008 --

STUDENTS at Harvard Business School pull a cunning trick that allows them to drive luxury cars and get financial aid, an upcoming book claims. In "Ahead of the Curve," journalist Philip Delves Broughton, recounting his two years at the Ivy League university, tells how he was stunned to find so many students tooling around in BMWs, Porsches, Lexuses, Mini Coopers and Lincoln Navigators, while he drove a $2,000 used Toyota. One knowledgeable student told him: "Once you get accepted into HBS, you want to clear out your bank account so that you can get more financial aid. When you list your assets in the financial-aid application, you don't have to mention your car . . . You buy a car for $20,000, maybe you get an extra $20,000 in financial aid, so basically HBS buys you a BMW. If you hadn't bought the car, you'd have to pay $20,000 out of your savings." Broughton notes he was jolted by "the idea of these 25-year-old Wall Street jerks fiddling with their financial aid forms, with the connivance of their parents and the local BMW dealerships." The school's rep didn't get back to us.