Do you have a college degree?

[disneysteve]

It really is so expensive and incomes have certainly not gone up 5x since 1980 say and college is easily 5x the cost.

I don't know what to tell our kids.

The thing to stress to the kids is to work hard and do well in high school so they get good scholarships for college. My daughter's base scholarship was over $19,000/year, roughly 40% of the cost. That was entirely based on her high school performance. She could not have attended that college if not for that scholarship.

The other thing is to make it clear up front that the cost of the college is one of the deciding factors in the selection process. Don't let them get their heart set on a particular school only to find out it is unaffordable.

That said, don't rule out a school from consideration just because of the sticker price because almost nobody actually pays that amount. Just make sure your kid understands that if the school doesn't present a good financial aid package, it's getting crossed off the list.