Yes, @thumper1 brings up a very important point. Here’s the thing: you were not able to save what would make you comfortable for your DD to go to this school. If you all now can’t go through austerity regiment and put in the work to make this school work comfortably in terms of finances, you think that pushing this all off on loan repayment is going to make you comfortable financial?
I went through the loan route because of cash flow reasons, and I wanted us to be more comfortable. Well, I used the loan option to spread out each year’s payment for college to be spread out over 10. So paying that much reduced amount should have been far more comfortable , right?
Well, it was not. It was danged uncomfortable, inconvenient and really cut down on a lot of other options in life. Instead of 4 years of uncomfortable , it was over 14 , as we borrowed each year. Just paid it off a few years ago. And I’m lucky to have been able to do so because those loans grow incredibly large when you don’t stay on top of them. You let them grow and that capitalized interest becomes colossal
So, yes, borrowing is a viable option, and you are aware of the pitfalls of borrowing and are going to manage this. A big part of managing it means everyone has to be on board in making this work.
Now that the decision has been made, it’s a happy , celebratory time. Just let everyone know that it’s also a time to work on making this affordable.