<p>Bubblekid,
I hope you don't mind if we keep the discussion going. This topic applies to a lot of people, so there are others here (like me) who can benefit from the discussion.</p>
<p>It is so funny because just this morning I was talking to my 15 y/o S who wants to go to USC. I was explaining to him what it costs and that "full-ride" scholarships are pretty much non-existent. </p>
<p>So, he said, "So how does anybody go to USC then if it costs that much and there aren't any really big scholarships?!?!" Then I got online and saw this thread. :-)</p>
<p>What I told him is that no one is entitled to an expensive education just because they are smart. We have told our kids that we can afford to send them to college locally but we can't afford to send them away to a state school, much less an expensive private university. We told them that we would help out as much as we can, but they would need to get scholarships if they want a pricier education. We had this talk with each of the kids when they entered 9th grade.</p>
<p>Our older S took that information and decided to pursue appointment to the Air Force Academy or an Air Force ROTC scholarship. He wants a career in the military, so this wasn't any sacrifice for him to do it this way. He did not receive an appointment to the Academy, but did receive a top level ROTC scholarship which pays all tuition & fees + a stipend. That does cost you a 4 year military commitment (better than a lifelong student debt imho, but to each his own). This S decided to use the scholarship at a state U, because that's where he really wanted to go. If we had thought that he'd qualify for the top level of scholarship (which pays 100% of tuition & fees...no room & board), we would have had him apply for some of the more selective universities, but we had no idea he would qualify. It doesn't matter, though. He is so happy and excited about where he'll be attending.</p>
<p>So, with our younger S, I told him that he probably should not get his heart set on USC. Maybe I am over-generalizing, but I told him that schools like that are for upper-income people who can afford to pay for it and for lower-income people who qualify for grants. People like us (middle-income) just can't do it. Our EFC is $17k per year. We just can't come up with that kind of money. We have 3 kids, so it wouldn't be just doing it for one.</p>
<p>Forgive the rambling, but I feel I should qualify what I said above. We have friends with a nearly identical family income to ours and a nearly identical value of house. My friend was complaining about this very thing....that there was no way they could come up with that much money. I told her, "Hey, you and I live in houses that are valued at almost 200K. If we sold our house and moved into something really cheap, we'd have enough money to pay for at least 1 of our kids to go to a state univ with enough left over to pay for 1/2 or so for another kid. But, we don't want to do that. So, we don't really have any right to whine that somebody else won't pay for our kids' college."</p>
<p>In our case, we put money into a business when our oldest was 13 with the plan that it would pay for the kids' college. Well, we got off to a rocky start and didn't start making any money at all until a few months ago (and we're still in the red). It's rolling now, and hopefully will be generating some income in the next 2-3 years, but our kids' ages are now 20 (not attending college now, but talking about starting), 18, and 15! So we are definitely behind the power curve. I just didn't want it to sound like it never occurred to us to save for their educations!</p>