The obsession of Americans with "how do you pay for your kids to go to college?" is truly bizarre to my non-US eyes (I am living in the US). They are adults when they go to college, there are merit-based scholarships, sports scholarships, they can work some, maybe I could loan some money. If you cannot afford Harvard or Stanford, don't go to either. I did not, I did fine, and I would not contribute with my money to those institutions.

I got zero money from my parents after I turned 17, and the bare minimum before that, and I would have felt inadequate as a young adult if I had taken money from them, which they did not have in any case. Exception exists (e.g. disabilities).