If I knew I wouldn’t be able to afford full fare for my kids, I would push (yes, push) my kids to get the best grades and test scores possible. I would spend money on tutoring and enrichment outside of school. Having top GPA and test scores would give your kid best chance of getting merit scholarship to make college affordable. Your kid may not be able to afford top tier schools, but would be able to get scholarship at next tier down. Of course if you know you maybe eligible for FA, you may want to structure your finance in such that you’ll get maximum aid (fund 401K instead of 529)
Our goal was also to save enough for four years at a public university. First one used that all. Second one got full tuition for all four years so was allowed to use some for related expenses. Third one chose to go to the most expensive state school for engineering but our plan also included having our house payed off by college time so used that to cover the shortfall. Retirement savings always came before everything else.
We started saving the day each was born. Put some in eadh month. Now that we have grandchildren, have done the same for them. Not each month but for each gift giving occassion. Just want our kids to know how much we value education.
If it hasn’t already been mentioned, consider this: get a job at a college or university. Children of employees often get free tuition and some colleges often have agreements with other colleges where the employees’ kids can go for free. You don’t have to teach, I know women who worked in the college bookstore or financial aid office who received this nice perk of the job as well as a number of other parents who got those kinds of breaks when it came to tuition. Wish I’d thought to gear myself in that direction. Ah, well.