What would be a typical scenario for paying for child's education if parents shoulder the costs

@MKurianMathew - not quite clear what you are asking. It looks like you’ve been following CC since your DD was in 8th grade. Lots of great advice here on selecting affordable schools, etc. Is this your only child? Do you have other significant financial commitments? As others have said, hopefully you have looked at/run NPCs and also have an idea what your EFC will be. Will you be helping cover costs if your DD attends med school as well? Lots of things to consider in allocating funds.

Hopefully you have savings, a 529 or other resources to help pay for her college without taking private loans or tapping into retirement funds, etc. Like others here, we started saving for our kids’ college when they were born so choices were available when they were applying. If you don’t qualify for need based aid, hopefully your DD applied to school that might offer merit aid and also schools that are instate and/or affordable. Good luck.