As Zack Zbar gets ready to apply to colleges this fall, his parents have established one important ground rule. Jeff, a Florida writer, and his wife Robbie, a nurse practitioner, would like to send their son to the best college he can get into, but they don’t intend to go into debt to make that happen. They’ll look for grants and scholarships, or they’ll turn to an in-state option. “If we can’t afford it, then we have some reckoning to do,” says Jeff, 47.
A growing number of parents are rethinking how much they’re willing to spend on a child’s college tuition. According to a report released last week by student lender Sallie Mae, about 51% of parents “strongly agreed” that they would stretch financially to to send their children to college, down from 64% of parents last year; about the same number said they would go into debt to do so, down from 59%. It marks the first time those numbers have dropped since the firm began the survey in 2007.