I feel your pain with the fairness issue, but if kids are a few years apart, it’s difficult to judge how to be fair. Tuition costs rise over time, generally, so what someone pays for a child graduating in 2016 vs. one who will graduate in 2022 can differ greatly. What if one child has earned merit scholarships due to hard work, good grades, and good test scores while another didn’t? Or what if one were willing to spend much more time writing essays and applying to more schools than another, thus improving merit aid chances? You have to do the best you can at the time, based on what you can afford and perhaps what loans you and/or your student might be willing to take out.