When our kids went to university, I told them “your parents managed to pay their own way through… you can do it too. Don’t expect any help from us.” In the end, we did help them out but that financial arrangement was part gift (based on how much skin in the game they were prepared to put) and part loan for which the repayment is structured over 10 years after graduation. In the end, I saw no other way to make it fair for all the kids since not all of them wanted to do post-secondary education. I’d be interested in hearing how others have done this.
So far, only my firstborn is in college. Fortunately, thanks to his SAT score, he qualified for practically a full ride at one college.
My other children will do their best with the SAT and hope for scholarships, too; otherwise, they can start at community college and transfer later, or they might opt for career programs instead.
Either way, I'm not worried anymore. I've heard now from the firstborn about all the trouble on campus, so I'm not sure it'd be so bad if the younger ones didn't go straight to university.