Last minute college savings for child?

I have no suggestions on savings, but I do have one: please tell your child NOW that she cannot expect you to cover her entire tuition. She needs to know that college will mostly be on her own dime so that she can consider schools within her budget. Be brutally honest with her: you cannot afford to send her to Dream College X out of state, unless she gets an amazing scholarship. Please do not leave this conversation until her junior year when she's working on applications. This might also encourage her to take on a part time job and start saving on her own for college, or to work harder at her studies.

On the other hand, plenty of people attend in-state schools w/tuition mostly covered by TOPS and go on to become productive citizens.....

$5k a year in loans is $20k for an undergrad education.....ouch. I’m very glad I didn’t have that sort of debt straight out of school. But I pinched pennies, lived in campus housing w no AC......

I agree with letting her know now and setting expectations. While education is more expensive now, I was able to save a considerable amount of money by going to a Community College for the first two years before transferring. It made things more difficult as an engineer student once I got to State, but it was very doable. I also worked construction during the summer and got a job with a caterer that was perfect for college. I could come home on the weekend and between setting things up and cleaning up afterwards I could get in 20 plus hours over the weekend and when I was out of school for Christmas I could easily pick up 70ish hours doing Christmas parties etc. All in it all it probably kept me out of trouble and made college expense much more manageable.

The opportunity for your child to even know about scholarships, grants, etc. is plenty of "help" to her. Guide her on what it will take for HER to fund HER college education. As a sophomore she has plenty of time to work on GPA/Test scores that are needed to apply for many scholarships and grants. As well as work part time in High School to start saving.

There are many options to fund college besides a parent's account. I can think of a quick list below
-Scholarships(major and minor)
-Grants
-Part Time work(uber, wait tables, Waitr, runners at law offices)
-student loans
and the BIGGEST IS "CONTROL SPENDING"

Yea, a lot of the kids have nice cars and live in nice apartments, but they also have rich parents or student loans. Minimize spending and you can minimize "costs".

I went to college driving a vehicle with 250k+ miles and lived in a below average apartment complex, but I made those sacrifices so that I could be the first person to go to college in my family.

The kids that I met in college that were set up the best and most prepared(financially and academically) were the ones who were 2nd generation college students. Their parents guided them to the path of success. My girlfriend(2nd gen college) had applied for and earned so many scholarships that she was getting paid to go, plus she worked part time as a dental assistant all while she studied Chemical Engineering with a 3.5 GPA.

Paying for college without their parent's money is possible for the kids that want to EARN a degree.