By dumb luck, I was able to pay for my own college. I was only 17 when I started college. Since I didn't like school, my first thought was to go during the summers. If I went during the summer, I could get it over with faster. Then I thought, I don't want to be 20 years old and working full time. So I decided to do a "co-op", a program that includes a year of hands-on work intermixed throughout the 4 academic years. It would take 5 calendar years to finish school. Well, working and saving during those co-op sessions allowed me to pay 100% of my way through school. With 5 other siblings for my parents to get through school, I was happy to do it.

My 3 daughters were told as a freshman in high school, I would pay 1/4 of the cost of college, their mother would pay a 1/4, and they had to cover the other half. Also, I told them they did not need to get a job during high school. I would give them a reasonable amount of spending money for their socializing. Their JOB during high school was to get good grades so they could get good scholarship money. So they got good scholarships (which count toward their half) and they are also working in a co-op program and taking 5 calendar years to get through school.

It is working out very well!

Daniel