Our son attends Caltech on the Aunt Bea financial plan=full pay.
We did have our son take out loans in his name because we felt that he needed to be invested and responsible for some of the costs of his education since it was his choice and he was accepted at several universities with full rides. (And, we have two other children at full fees at their schools-graduate school and undergrad). Our son works full time during the summer and is responsible for the loan costs. Don’t give your kid the $250g’s unless there is a substantial tax benefit to either or both of you.
Caltech’s financial aid staff is really good about locating in-house scholarships to help parents with the money burden-even if you can pay for the total. (Everything is need based. Merit scholarships are limited to the top 1-2 students and are almost non-existent since all of the students would qualify.) So, you need to ask the FA staff. It’s such a small school that they know each case and know what the school can provide. (I’m on a first name basis with some of the staff.)
Our son, unfortunately won a number of outside scholarships and these count against us, the parents, since these outside scholarships reduce the “need” and add the price to your costs.
Bills are submitted to the parent via quarterly statements. This helps to break up the shock of the amounts.
I don’t think his chances to get into the grad school are diminished. One of the RA staff (grad student) was on the speaker panel (Northridge grad? one of the local CSU’s). I think the advantage to being an UG from Caltech is that the professors already know him. From day one of our experiences at Caltech, the students meet and eat with the professors. Some professors regularly meet students for dinner at the Athenaeum. My son’s advisor is an electrical engineering professor, that we met and ate lunch with 6 other sets of parents.
Caltech does have some quirks that your son would need to adjust to.
Very small school so they don’t have large-scale operations, which is good for the personalities of the accepted kids; but for others, they might not like these. ex: Meals are almost non-existent on the weekends. He has to walk to Lake Avenue and pay for his own meals.