I was not online over the long weekend and have just caught up on all the discussion. I perhaps should have been more clear that the 200K figure was over and above the amount we have saved. HowlerKarma is correct that as an out of state student attending one of the top California schools, the debt would have been substantially higher than that without savings.
HowlerKarma is also correct that the University of Washington is expensive for middle income parents. Taken from their website today, incoming IN STATE freshman can expect to pay $27,112, while out of state students will pay $48,231 per year. Not a lot of aid available either.
Harvard has the best aid, truly generous, and if she had gotten in there DD would have gone.
Most other schools have gone to primarily need based aid for in state students and no aid at all for out of state students. Private schools treat everyone the same. Like many other parents, we saved, and the interest and appreciation did not keep up with the 10-20% annual tuition increases seen in the last decade.
Some estimates (see link
https://www.massmutual.com/planning...df94531cb3a4a110VgnVCM100000ee6d06aaRCRD) estimate that public universities will cost $107,244 per year in 2030 if there is 10% inflation in price. Not many families will have upwards of $428,000 saved and this rate of growth seems unsustainable to me.
This is a difficult decision for most families, and I appreciate the thoughtful discussion.
