>I too fall into the category of those who cannot get financial aid for college. We are researching that right now for my daughter. I wanted my daughter to take out a student loan or get finaincial aid with the agreement (between us) that if she graduated, her parents would pay it off (the student loan). That essentially means me. I wanted her to take on the responsibility and know that if she didn't put forth the effort, it would be her debt. She cannot get financial aid though. Student loans are virtually drying up. Either I pay for her college or she doesn't go.

I don't know why kind of student your daughter is, but if she's top of the class (both grades and tests), take a look around at the highly competitive schools. Over the last few years, a number of them have gone to grant-only aid. I know Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Penn and Amherst are on that bandwagon.

FWIW, my parents and I had the deal that we'd get the loans and when time came to pay them, we'd see who was in a better position to do so. Because I spent a lot of years in grad school deferring my loans, by the time I had to pay, it was so little relative to other things that it wasn't a big deal either way.

That said, I'm still glad my kids are able to graduate debt-free.

Tamar