I live in California, so state schools are very good and can even be prestigious (Berkeley, UCLA). I'm not limiting their options. I guess if one of my childre

I live in California, so state schools are very good and can even be prestigious (Berkeley, UCLA). I'm not limiting their options. I guess if one of my children is absolutely determined to jump into big time debt to go to Harvard, I probably wouldn't stop them. But I won't destroy myself financially just because I'm afraid to explain to my children that choices have costs (list price of Harvard is something like $80k/yr). Also, my children are more different in age, so if I go broke on the first one, the next one wouldnt have the same opportunity. The choice I'm offering is really not a bad one. I'll pay something reasonable, and if they can make up the difference with work and scholarships, great. If they want to do research, they can always go to MIT for grad school. Also, by the time they go, things might be different. So many people got burned by the "go to whatever college you want, regardless of price" idea that it might shatter the prestige of any private school below ivy league. Or more people might do the first two years at CC before going to university, and that might carry less stigma.