Higher education is not a finishing school or charm school. Four to seven years of expensive post-secondary work are not intended to make you a better person, or to teach you how to think, or to increase your overall understanding of the world, or any of the other mantras of the liberal arts faculty. If I am going to pay up to $250,000 to fund this enterprise, I expect them to emerge from it with a salable skill that cannot be performed in China or India or an entrepreneurial talent that will allow them to own a house, support a family, and provide for the future at least as well and hopefully better than I have. Incidentally, the construction trades would meet these requirements.
I'm still a few years away from that point, but have had this discussion with my (very) rich cousin whose eldest son is graduating HS this year. His son is a very talented artist and wants to go either to an art school or a university to study art. My cousin (self-made entrepreneur) is, obviously, concerned and wants him to study business.
What I proposed was that he let his son decide, but with the following proviso: that if the wanted to study business, cousin would pay the full ticket for four years, but that if he wanted to study art, he would pay some, but the son would have to get a job to pay the rest. You have that lever available to you as well.
The goal of raising a child is not to create a clone, but to create an autonomous individual. It's harder than it looks!