<p>We faced this exact scenario, for real.</p>
<p>S was accepted to a top-15 school. Zero financial aid was offered other than unsubsidized loans. Total cost over 4 years was estimated at around $230,000.</p>
<p>For him to attend this school school would have required:</p>
<ul>
<li>either he or we taking on in excess of $120,000 in loans + deferred interest</li>
<li>stopping saving for retirement for 4 years and taking probably $60,000 in loans</li>
<li>drastically down-grading our lifestyle - selling the house and move to something smaller in a town with lower taxes and a much inferior school system to we live now; my D at the time was a rising sophomore in HS. </li>
<li>taking money out of our retirement savings</li>
<li>selling assets which are intended to provide a good portion of our retirement income, and probably taking loans</li>
</ul>
<p>We both work full-time, working more is not a practical solution.</p>
<p>We don’t exactly live high on the hog - no expensive vacations, our house is not huge, until recently I was driving a 13 year old car, W’s minivan has 150,000+ miles on it, etc.</p>
<p>We ultimately decided we could not forgo retirement savings, didn’t want to take on huge loans for ourselves, and moving to a cheaper town with a lousy school system was unfair to our D.</p>
<p>So we let S make the choice - he could borrow the $120K, or go to cheaper school. And we <em>STRONGLY</em> recommended he pick something cheaper.</p>
<p>Which he did. And he loves it there, so he has no regrets.</p>
<p>I do, though - I still feel guilty that I couldn’t provide the top-15 education to him. But financially, it was the right decision.</p>