Arguably the externalities of increased spending on education make that overspending a worse thing for society than some other choices. As pointed out above, it creates an arms race to build luxury facilities that have little to do with the need to educate students.
In contrast the choices of others to overspend on a Lamborghini or a luxury holiday don’t make my Toyota Camry or camping trip any more expensive.
Yeah, we’re not going into that sort of debt for either of our kids, but we are very lucky in that our kids have a choice of University of MN, U of Wis(reciprocity prices), and Canadian schools(Dual citizen, so we get Canadian pricing). The cost of a college education in America is ridiculous, so we are pretty happy to have those options available to us.
OP: If you’ve only recently gone to two incomes, could you try to revert to previous spending patterns, thus freeing up most of the second income for college costs?
Does your DS know what he wants to study?
@Conformist1688 - This thread is over a year old. The OP’s son has since accepted an offer from a school with a full tuition scholarship.
I am actually quite interested in this thread because it is a dilemma that many families face.
Thank you to everyone who had specific college suggestions for my daughter up-thread. I do not want to take away from the purpose of this thread - discussing how large debt impacts one’s college decision. One of the limitations of the current cost model is that is creates a huge vacuum for kids who prefer smaller residential colleges (where almost all students remain on campus for 4 years) and those who also need access to research facilities, etc. Some private schools are able to strike this balance remarkably well, but we have yet to find a public institution that can do the same. But as with almost everything in life, there are trade-offs. I just know that we are not going to leverage our or our children’s future for 4 years of undergrad education.
@dis3456: could your daughter be competitive for one of Lafayette’s merit/full tuition Scholarships ?
There are some public universities that are small or mid sized that have research opportunities. Colorado school of Mines, Missouri Tech (Rolla), St. Mary’s (Maryland). States have schools that aren’t the flagship that might have a specialty in STEM or education or something else. While they might not always have 4 years in the dorm, many are in towns that are small so the students live very close to campus.
Closing thread since Op has made decisions and is king gone. I would recommend starting a new thread to ask your specific question