Here's one line of thought - You can hand over 130K to your son, and let him decide. Then he'll have to treat that as an investment, either into college (and h

Here's one line of thought - You can hand over 130K to your son, and let him decide. Then he'll have to treat that as an investment, either into college (and hence he'd hopefully be Very Serious about it), or use it for something else - travelling, entrepreneurship, MF/stock investment, etc. The weight of the decision and the ensuing use of the monies are both the payoff, not a degree per-se.