What Hoggirl told her son is pretty much the same thing we have told our daughter. So we are encouraging her to apply to schools, public or private, that will give her merit aid. In case she doesn’t get merit aid, then we have a few publics, flagship and regional, with “affordable” (a relative term, for sure) tuition.
Thrown into the mix is that her dad, my husband, will be 64, when she graduates with her BA. He wants to retire, then. We won’t be comfortable doing that if she spends all of her fund on the Bachelor’s degree. And we’ve told her that, too. People should just be frank with their kids about what they are comfortable spending, and how much there is to spend. They are 17 and 18, not 10. They can handle it. If not, they will learn to…