College students and Tax rebate

Well thankfully my taxes are done for another year. But in the process of doing my taxes with Turbo Tax it shows you the amount you can expect to receive from the US Govt. economic stimulus payments. Well guess what your children in college don't qualify since they are 17 or older. But in addition when I worked on taxes for my college age children who earned just enough to qualify earnings wise for the economic stimulus payments, guess what they didn't qualify since they can be claimed on a parents tax return.

Someone please explain why college students don't qualify on their own or under their parents. Does someone think parents of college students couldn't use some extra money or does someone think college students have lots money, well they are wrong in both cases.

This just makes no sense to me why are college students and parents of college students penalized, someone please explain this to me.

Oh and one more point what is magic about age 17, are children suppose to be out on their own, WRONG AGAIN usually they are in the last year or two of high school. So why once again do tax credits disappear for children at age 17?

Well now that I have vented about this I will get back to my normal posts, but please comment if you have some thoughts on this subject or you would just like to rant about this yourself.