Our second DS is off to Northeastern in the fall, his older brother (a far less 'motivated' student) goes to the State college where I work. He lives at home and one of my supposed "benefits" is tuition remission, except the Commonwealth, in all its wisdom, lowers tuition and increases the fees -- which WE PAY!!. And we still have two kids to go. So in Feb. we purchased membership in DVC. Yes, it's an additional monthly payment. But we can still do our every-other-year trip to the World without coming up with that major chunk of change for a place to stay. Our trips now involve (cheap) air fare and passes. We'd have to get food anyway, so we tend to overlook most of our food expenditures. And with the units we'll be staying in, we can at least have breakfast in the room, as well as snacks. As far as college expenses go, we can only do so much for all of our kids. We'll do what we can, and the kids will pay for the rest. The amount of debt they incur will be up to them. An additional benefit to our membership is the fact that for his grad. gift, our son and two friends are staying in a villa at Wilderness Lodge. In our minds, this beats the famous Beach Week because they can't drink and they won't have a car, but there'll be plenty for them to do. If we had to pay for a hotel on top of flights and passes, we couldn't do it for them.
The bottom line is this: college is one of the most important things you will ever do for your child, but it's not the only thing in life. I like to think our kids will appreciate their educations as well as the memories of WDW we've given them.
inkbounc
