@ccprofandmomof2, $416/month adds up to about $5K a year X 18 = $90K. And that’s with no market appreciation in the 529. Granted, yes, tuition and R&B have also risen fast.
So it depends on what state you’re in and how cheap/expensive the publics are. Also if you commute or not or bring in credits through AP/DE/CC/early college.
At most publics, R&B is the bigger expense, but that is controllable. In tuition-free Germany, nobody is paying for your R&B except yourself/family. Getting paid to attend uni (which those who get more fin aid than tuition costs essentially are) would be unheard of there. I don’t think anyone can say with a straight face that university in Germany is too expensive (considering that they’re tuition-free). But yes, the luxury good of 4 years of live-away college without having to work to earn anything to pay for that is pretty pricey.