@bopper In my original post I said “If you choose a less expensive college, you will get 50% of any leftover money when you graduate.” So she would need to graduate from an already approved college to get any benefit. There’s also an inventive to not drag it out for additional semesters so that there is more money left. She can’t pick any college (Colleges A-D are already approved by us). Community college or not going to college wouldn’t qualify to get any “savings”. This is appropriate for this kid as they are fully capable of graduating from a college. YMMV.
If it makes any difference to anyone for the other comments, she would be studying Engineering (so not a pre-med, pre-law type situation where grad school is the ultimate focus). I think reputation of school could play a factor in decision making process to some extent. They are all ABET accredited schools. So maybe there is a bit of an ROI difference in terms of a potential higher return for College D to balance against higher cost/investment?