How to Deal with The Dollars in Kid's College Decision Process

[ucbalumnus]

@bgbg4us

we have not saved anywhere near enough money for our 4 kids. we had no idea college was so expensive. My husband has come up with some sort of plan saying we will pay for room and board, and half of tuition based on our state’s flagship. (not a top-tier type; but good). Even with that, we will need to borrow money at some point.

But you do plan to tell your kids early on, before they make their application lists, what your budget constraints are, right? That way, they can build application lists that have a better chance of resulting in a selection of comfortably affordable schools in April of their senior years, rather than perhaps one barely-affordable school and a bunch of unaffordable schools.