<p>I think the trick is to save for 18 years and then to watch your savings drop quickly in 4 years! The FA office at many colleges will “love” the parents who have been doing this.</p>
<p>Regarding OOS state college: I heard that a recent trend for several states is that their state colleges actively recruit OOS students because their states could not fund their state colleges with enough tax money. The state colleges are forced to increase the revenue by recruiting the OOS students from rich families, as long as the “brand” of the school name is still worth something in the eyes of the potential “buyers.”</p>
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Tangent to the discussion here: If the student decides to attend a professional school after college, the debt for only ONE YEAR will most likely be higher than this amount - if the savings of the parents have been mostly wiped out by the time their offsprings are out of 4-year college.</p>