<p>I hate to say it, but my generation (the parents now) just haven’t done a very good job of anticipating college for their kiddos. I haven’t quite figured out if they have just been living the good life and thought that college costs would be the same as when they were in school. At any rate, as the parent of a child who is paying the full fare, I can tell you that for 18+ years, all I have heard is that we have to put money away for the college fund. I would love to live in a bigger house and drive a new car every year, but alas that has not happened. Our child’s future education came first! While I realize there are unfortunate circumstances that occur in every family financially, I feel that the vast majority of parents just did not prepare. Somehow, I wonder about pure merit anymore. As a previous poster mentioned, there are plenty of colleges out there. It is very disheartening to hear how hard students have worked and then find out come college decision time, that Mom and Dad don’t have or will not fund their college education.</p>