<p>We took the money. Our son has just started at a state school with a full academic ride - I think we will pay about $70 this year. He will graduate with an engineering degree from a very reputable state university, with no debt, and money in the bank for graduate school (should he choose to attend) which is the determinative credential these days anyway. He will have our support to pursue as many travel abroad opportunities during college as he desires and will not need to get a job during school as so many do to earn tuition/spending money. It was just the logical choice. There was an article in the Wall Street Journal sometime in the past year or so that we found to be very persuasive. The author was a financial planner who advised parents on college investing. Her advice was that anyone who is paying top dollar to attend an elite undergrad university is being foolhardy with their money, as there simply is never going to be a direct correlation between those tuition dollars guaranteeing success, connections, higher salaries. Any Ivy salary advantage lasts approximately 3 years after graduation before that levels off, so there is no lasting edge. If your kid is smart enough to get into a first-tier school, then a second tier school would LOVE to have them, and will give them most likely full ride. Similarly, if your child can get into a second-tier school, a third-tier school would be happy to pay them to attend their school. After graduation, success depends on hard work - and the importance of a degree from an elite school will diminish each year. In the end, this is a business decision and that is how we treated it.</p>