From yesterday's UK Guardian paper, Bernie Sanders is looking to make debt-free (not tuition-free) college the key campaign for 2016 - http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/27/democrats-debt-free-college-bernie-sanders

I'll add here that I have family in VT; one of whom recently finished doing a doctorate in physical therapy at UVM. She had to take out over $100,000+ in student loans to do it. However, IF she stays in VT, then the loan is forgiven. So there are deals with loan forgiveness if you're doing certain degrees in certain states.

My point here is that parents should cast a very wide net with their college searches - beyond local, regional, and national. Others may differ, but the savings and benefits can be substantial.

Ultramarina - I have a friend who recently filed for bankruptcy. She has a 17-yr-old who was applying to various schools in MA (not top ones). She told me that he got into every single school and got quite a bit of financial aid as well. She said all her friends who saved like the devil for college and who made much money barely got anything or not even a penny. I'm not saying anyone wants to file bankruptcy or does so deliberately to get financial aid for their children to study at college. However, there is a silver lining here and hope for those of us on quite a bit less than $90K.