<p>As a parent of 4 teens, the oldest just returning from his freshman year, I thought I'd offer my perspective on the value of that 40k plus price tag.</p>
<p>H and I opened prepaid tuition accounts for all 4 kids years ago with the attitude that we would pay for an in state public school and if the kids wanted to attend elsewhere, they would be responsible for the difference. We live in a great college state (VA) and felt this was fair.</p>
<p>Along came S1 with his national and international awards in math and the humanities, incredible passion for learning, and a longing to be exposed to the best. Long story short, he chose an ivy and we are borrowing against our home equity to finance his undergraduate education. He's been home not quite a week, and we realized why doing this is okay for us. Not home for even an hour and we were all discussing S2's college prospects and possible music minor. "I have a friend who's a really good violinist, she studies under Itzach Perlman, I'll email her for advice." ...okay, thanks. (What? Itzach Perlman?) This evening I commented that the Scripps National Spelling Bee was on tv and I heard "Oh yeah, one of my frineds is working there behind the scenes. He won a few years ago." I turned to DH and said, "okay, this is why we're going into debt."</p>
<p>So for us, at least, the sacrifice is worth the experiences and friendships our son will have. It was the right thing to do for him, and probably for S2. D1 and D2 are not quite in the same league and will hopefully use their prepaid tuition accounts. Please don't misconstrue anything I've inferred - H and I both went to state schools and did just fine! Just offering an insight into how it's easy to judge decisions but no easy to actually make them.</p>