[koolba]

> I know that my plan is two max at the moment strictly because total cost per head is roughly $500k in today's dollars (including total private college costs, which account for half of that).

So double the kids for same price assuming they go to a public university? Sounds like a good deal to me.

FYI, you can cut that down even further if you go to a community college for the first year or two and then transfer.

[sp527]

Rank of the college matters in my opinion. It's unfortunate but it does create opportunities. High-ranked public universities are often really great, but usually comparable in total cost to private ones (with savings for being in-state in some cases).

But yes if you only gain admission to the long tail of private colleges, then you would almost certainly be wiser to go to a low-cost public school.

I wouldn't want my kids to consider community college unless they had to. By definition, I'd like them to have the same academic opportunities I had, if possible.