[woebtz]

Saving $2500/year @ 10% compounded annually over 18 years is a little over $120K.

Not qualifying for financial aid, the total cost (tuition, room, books) per year @ Stanford will run you $50-60K--easily $200K+ for four years.

If this tuition history chart (http://www.collegecalc.org/colleges/california/stanford-univ...) is any indication of the future, four years at Stanford or any prestigious college in 2032 will set you back a ~half million USD!

I suppose the parents can bet on the smarter of the two kids...

[jmillikin]

  > Saving $2500/year @ 10% compounded annually over 18
  > years is a little over $120K.

10% is not realistic; 2-3% is more likely, since a college fund isn't the sort of thing you'd want to gamble on stocks with.

  > Not qualifying for financial aid

Always factor in financial aid when calculating college costs. According to stanford.edu's Net Price Calculator, a gross income of $130k with the specified income tax rates will receive sufficient financial aid to reduce the net cost to about $11k per year. This is still pretty high for undergrad, but it's not financially ruinous.