You can give one final gift to your parents before you graduate from HS and then give them the REAL gift of appreciation for everything they’ve done for you.
Print out a loan payment worksheet and show them what the ACTUAL costs are of borrowing- what, 40K PER YEAR for NYU? That is a crippling amount of debt. Borrowing 160K per year for NYU?
I know dozens of NYU grads and kids who are there now and not a single one of them would advocate that level of debt.
They can write the check without blinking? Great. They need to borrow the difference between 50K per year and what NYU will end up costing over four years? Crippling. And absolutely insane to boot.
Let them see the actual numbers-- what they will owe every single month. That ought to trigger a very revealing discussion. This isn’t for a house- which god forbid if something happens at least you can downsize. Those educational loans will follow them around no matter what. Muffler falls off the car? Refrigerator dies? No matter what happens, those loan payments are due every single month.
Please print out the loan worksheet and review it with them. Using actual numbers, with actual interest rates from an actual bank. Don’t let this fantasy bankrupt your parents.