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[quote=Anonymous]OP - I know when you are looking at up to 400K per student (worst case scenario knowing that prices continue to go up over the next 9 years) and you only have a third of that saved that seems scary.

I live in DC and have two kids, a high school senior applying to colleges now and a high school freshman.

Assuming you have no additional savings between now and when your 7th grader finishes college, you will have the following amounts without changing your lifestyle in the least:

in 529s now:  405K
50K x 7 years:  350K

Total:  755K or roughly 250K/student

If you did some expense cutting now and saved an additional $20K/year for the next 9 years, that would be another $180K, or roughly $310K/student.

You have a lot of money available to you.  Before you panic, I think it would be wise to consider your children and where you see them going to college.  Are your 10th graders superstars in academics, sports, national competitions, etc.  Are they headed for the top tier private colleges that only give need based aid?  Do they have a chance to get in there?  Would that be a good fit?  With DC TAG (which has an income limit of a just over $500K AGI), the cost for my kids going to the following out of state public universities is:

University of CA - about $55K/year
University of VA - about $63K/year (this is the top end of VA public colleges out of state costs, W&M is about the same, the rest are less)
UNC Chapel Hill - about $47K/year
University of Pittsburgh - about $40K/year

Top private colleges - Ivys and most top 20s - do not give much merit aide, but some do. The general cost is $85K/year and it will be higher for your students because inflation.

Whatever level student you have, there will be schools that will reduce the sticker price for your student and there will be those that will not.

Assigned reading:  1) Who gets in and Why, and 2) The Price You Pay for College.  Learn how to read a common data set - explained in both books.

I am at the point in looking at colleges where I think we would be getting a bargain if college costs us $50K/year and worst case scenario is something around $90K/year.

We will use a combination of savings and cash flow.

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