I wonder how pragmatic and realistic today's parents (and yes, I think it's mainly on the parents) and kids are with respect to college. My family was lower mi

I wonder how pragmatic and realistic today's parents (and yes, I think it's mainly on the parents) and kids are with respect to college. My family was lower middle class, I used FAFSA and PELL to pay my way through college. I paid maybe a couple hundred dollars per semester for eligibility. I also rarely bought textbooks and instead would torrent them, all of these steps were taken because I knew my parents could not afford college and had already stretched their wallets to pay for my private high school. At the end of the day parents need to look at college in a similar way to how we purchase other things. Everyone would like a Tesla but an Accord will do for most. Are you really going to hamstring your kids, and possibly yourself (ParentPlus loans) to send your kids to an out of state, private school w/o scholarships? Universities and the government share equal blame but at some point we need to come to certain realizations about college.