All of us who went to college, and everyone in college now, has, and is, in essence, banking on a “potential outcome,” with no guarantees, whether they realize it or not, and I completely agree that going into extreme debt for that “potential outcome” is very risky. Many parents today are getting a very disappointing ROI in that regard–and I know a lot of them personally.

If the grandparents hadn’t willingly financed the education of all of the kids in the family, especially those who went to med school like my daughter, I know my wife and I would have had some serious discussions about how far out on a limb we would have been willing to go to finance their educational dreams, vs. investing in properties and other things for them, etc., as AN mentioned.