Many people said that about tuition rates 10 years ago, and it hasn't happened... what you will see are some lower quality colleges going out of business. The rates will stay the same and increase somewhat still for the colleges where you would actually want to send your kids to school. And I don't just mean the Ivies. Unless states step up and increase their funding levels for universities, costs will continue to rise at state universities as well. I don't sense the winds of change in state legislatures on that, either. There is whining and hand-wringing, but no actual appetite for tax increases that would be required to increase funding to the universities.

You make a basic assumption that the "brand name schools" are all overpriced. But if you have been reading HK's posts, you can also see the dilemma -- if you do want your kid to attend a school with a reasonable sized pool of their intellectual peers where the classroom challenges match their abilities, many of those schools are the "brand names" -- or charging the same prices as the "brand names". It is hard to find that fit with a lower priced school. It is easy to say when your kid is eight that you won't pay -- but much harder when you see what schools your kid would actually attend if you stick to this when they are 17.

I stick with my original advice -- start plugging money into a 529 now. You will be very happy that you did when the time comes.