Parents encouraging kids that they will pay if they get into good college

[Zinhead]

Talking about MIT - my spouse’ old boss from years ago went to MIT.
She said that her parents ended up reverse mortgage the family home to come up with the money.
She did not realized this until years later when she learnt that they were still paying mortgages into their late 60’s.

That is a horrible story, but plenty of schools are more than happy to put parents in that situation.