Dozens of college students from well-to-do families may be getting money reserved for poorer families thanks to a legal loophole: They're giving up custody of their children.

The tactic is legal, but ethically questionable, said Andrew Borst, the director of undergraduate admissions at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Chief among his concerns: Financial aid money is limited.

"Money we give to one student is money not going to another student," Borst said.

Here's how the scheme worked. ProPublica Illinois and The Wall Street Journalindependently reported Monday that families near Chicago would give up legal guardianship of their children to relatives or friends. Students would then file for financial independence, which effectively opened the door to financial aid they wouldn’t have been able to access while under the legal care of their parents.

The University of Illinois started investigating after high school counselors from "fairly wealthy neighborhoods" had called to inquire about low-income orientation programs they were unfamiliar with, Borst said. The university dug deeper and found a pattern of students entering into a legal guardianship, though they were still supported by their parents, he said.

The scheme bears similarity to tactics adopted by Rick Singer, the mastermind behind the nation’s largest college admissions scandal. In Singer's scheme, rich families also used their resources to secure advantages normally dedicated to those in need.

For instance, Singer would instruct wealthy families to have their children diagnosed with disabilities. As a result, they got more time to take the ACT and SAT, college admissions tests, which could translate to higher scores.

'A gut punch':How the college admissions scandal hurt families with disabled students

Borst said the University of Illinois had identified three students last year who had used guardianship to gain extra financial aid and potentially 11 students in the coming academic year. The university will not provide its own money to the students it has identified, but Borst said it can't legally prevent them from receiving federal or state money.

The university referred the cases to the U.S. Department of Education.

“The laws and regulations governing dependency status were created to help students who legitimately need assistance to attend college. Those who break the rules should be held accountable," department spokeswoman Liz Hill said in a statement. "The Department is committed to assessing what changes can be made – either independently or in concert with Congress – to protect taxpayers from those who seek to game the system for their own financial gain.”

It's still unclear how widespread the pattern might be, and ProPublica reported it had found more than 40 similar cases where students may have benefited from the model. Those students are now or have been accepted as students at University of Missouri, University of Wisconsin and Indiana University.

While the practice might be legal, it will likely be seen by many as rich families taking advantage of resources clearly aimed at the less well-off.

'Affirmative action for the rich':Wealthy parents already use privilege to game the college system. And it's perfectly legal

It also comes at a time when college costs continue to rise and more students take out loans, both private and public, to finance their education.

The guardianship twist is definitely unusual and hard to spot, said Jill Desjean, a policy analyst at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. After all, the students in question correctly said they were in a legal guardianship.

"It's not a thing that can raise a red flag," Desjean said. "It's not a thing that you can catch through some sort of process of verification or authentication."

It’s also unclear how much money these students might have been able to secure. The maximum yearly amount for a federal Pell Grant is roughly $6,200, which students need not pay back.Access to that award depends on family income.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign offers a program that promises free tuition for four years to in-state families earning $61,000 or less. For families that can't afford to contribute at all to their students' college costs, there is the Illinois Promise, which covers tuition, fees, room and board, and other costs. Some of the people identified, Borst said, took advantage of the promise program and received nearly $30,000 or more in aid – a combination of grants and scholarships, in exchange for students' working an approved job.

"Part of being a land grant institution is to fight against opportunity hoarding when we find it," Borst said. "So we can provide resources for talented students who truly do not have the ability to pay, rather than letting students who just don't have the willingness to pay hoard opportunities."

It's also unclear how universities should respond in the future. Desjean said many students legitimately need to file for legal guardianship because their parents can't or won't care for them.

Assuming everyone under this status is trying to game the system doesn't make sense, she said. In fact, that might be denying access to many students in need, given the seemingly narrow scope.

If Google search results are any indicator, some parents may see the University of Illinois cases less as an ethical problem and more as a how-to guide. The search term "How to transfer guardianship"spiked on Tuesday, after the ProPublica and Wall Street Journal stories broke.