Much of my focus is on avoiding debt, does your youngest have the option of CLEP? At $80 for 3 to 6 credits you can’t beat it IMO!
Avoiding debt was important for us, too. Both will likely go to graduate school. Carrying a large debt load into graduate school didn't seem very rational.
But they both received good financial aid packages that are affordable for our family, out of current income. My older son could have gone to our flagship for free, but chose a school with a better reputation in his chosen field. He could have “skipped” a year of school through “advanced standing” (he had enough high AP scores to skip a full year), but that would have meant fewer opportunities to develop in his field, because he'd have had less time at school. The cost of the various trips and internships he's received far exceeds what I will pay in a fourth year of tuition.
I wouldn't want the younger guy to skip any time at school, either. He's a math guy. High school was rough for him, because his school was always trying to hold him back from taking higher level math courses. They have very specific ideas of what young men can handle. He proved them wrong. Now, he's somewhere where he can take all the math he wants. He's like a kid in the candy store. It is a great joy to me to see him frolic with his studies. He came home for Christmas, asked me for a math book from Amazon, and then spent the entire break working through it. I can afford for him to be in college four years.
They'll each graduate debt-free, and have degrees from the top school in their fields with which to apply to graduate school.
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