Relevant to the discussion:
http://goblueguarantee.umich.edu/http://finaid.umich.edu/go-blue-guarantee-eligibility/#1 takeaway for me - this is gap coverage - not costing the university much at all, which is obvious if you look at the tab for "If your family income is more than $65K". If the $65K-$95K income average student would only cost about $1500 extra per year to the university if they extended this Guarantee that high, I'd think the $65K < group would cost even less.
So the representation of the new program - "15K per year value to student" isn't an honest representation of what is happening. The cost of this program is probably on the order of $10 million or less per year to the university. Big time marketing though.
#2 takeaway - definition of income and assets is
What does U-M consider when looking at student and family income?
We use information from the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and PROFILE financial aid applications and sometimes request other documents to verify family income and assets. We compute separate financial contributions for custodial and non-custodial parents. We define income as the total of student and parent wages, earnings from a business or other self-employment, other taxable income such as unemployment compensation and all untaxed income.
What assets are used when considering eligibility for the guarantee?
We consider total net worth, which includes: home equity (capped at 2.5 percent of income for Winter 2018, and 1.5 percent thereafter), savings/checking, investments, real estate and business net worth, but not retirement accounts.
So max out your 401K and IRA! And dump money into your house - if you get your income low enough to qualify, that's only like $1K of home equity that counts as assets once the 1.5% limit kicks in.