Tuition: Parents' Responsibility or Students'?

I agree with @kelsmom.

Financial aid is determined primarily from the parents’ financial situation. As a family without calculated financial need, I can’t imagine refusing to pay and leaving my kids to come up with today’s staggering college costs.

The word “moral” aside, I certainly feel I have a responsibility to my children to fund a college education. Education has always been a priority in our family and I would never consider a high school diploma to be a stopping point. Naturally, as a parent, it is my prerogative to determine what kind of college education I will fund based on my children’s academic acumen, our budget, the merit aid they receive, and their potential ability to earn money. But like generations before me, the goal is that my children will be able to meet or exceed the standard of living that they grew up with and this would not happen without our financial contribution for college.