I was about to post almost the exact thing as @austinmshauri . You want to be sure they have a modern understanding of the costs of college and that their casual assurance will stand up to the rigorous winds of the EFC. And you want them to check on this now, while you’re still open-minded and not completely in love with any particular school. Because the only thing as bad as the empty-handed kid with no safeties on May 1 is the one forced to set aside The Only School Where I Can Be Happy because the family can’t afford it. (The third horseman of this apocalypse doesn’t appear for a year or two: families unwilling to say No face their pain later, and it is much darker.)