A note to parents with kids off to college

For those parents who have the thought of their children going to college, I would like to share 10 of my immediate recollections over the last four years of my son attending Boise State. While this is our family's experience, students, parents, and schools are all different.

Scholarships - Our son earned a Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) scholarship due to his GPA in high school. This scholarship, about $16k/year for four years ($64k), basically made his out-of-state tuition less than the University of Washington. Grades mattered in this case, allowing him to go out of state for school....