My parents offered to pay 100% for college if the following criteria were met:
– UC or Cal State college. (Limit their expenses)
– Degree in something you could get a job in with just an undergraduate degree. (Liberal Arts discouraged – but teaching credential required.)

That last one, the major/degree restrictions, annoyed the crap out of me at the time. I wanted to do pre-law. My dad said “good luck with that, I’m not paying.” So I went into a BSEE program. I fell in love with Physics – wanted to change my major… My dad pointed out that physics majors ended up working as engineers – but with a lower starting salary. He said he wouldn’t pay. (Anectdotally, he was proven correct by some of my friends.) So I got my BSEE and have no regrets. Fortunately, I fell into embedded programming and enjoy it. Not everyone is lucky enough to land in a field they enjoy.

I’m planning on offering the same deal to my kids – tuition and living expense paid for a PUBLIC California college if/only if the degree has good odds of a job at graduation. (Liberal arts degrees will require a teaching credential – but still be discouraged.) If the boys are accepted to an Ivy school or Cal Tech or some such… the same degree rules hold, but they *might* be able to talk me into applying the same $$ towards that degree… but they’ll have to make up the difference with loans/summer jobs/etc. (Exception being Cal Tech in engineering – I’d find a way to help pay the extra for that.)

I hated my dad’s restrictions at the time – but appreciate them greatly now. I feel fortunate that I was able to graduate without debt. I’ve got the 529’s going for my kids and am budgeting for UC fees/expenses. I’m going to be mean, like my father was and apply the same restrictions he did.