Yes it’s fair. Different kids, different time, different situation. Stuff happens. Job loss, supporting elderly parents, illness. However, given that there haven’t been any big changes in the family situation, I don’t know if I’d offer one cash the other didn’t get. I told each what I could spend a year on school. Spending money and books were on them. My “deal” was that if the kids took free tuition (I also work in higher ed) at my employer or a sister school, I’d get them a bottom of the line new car at graduation. They did. I did. Thanks to a large, renewable outside scholarship, I spent considerably less on one than the other, but the deal they got remained the same. It was about what they could get (a no loan education) and not about what I paid. So nobody got cash or more help with grad school or a better car for going farther under budget.