Karl...
Make sure they don't over look state schools, education is what you make of it in college, not always where... the exeption being Ivy Schools I guess... but if you look at alot of important/sucessful people, they came out of smaller (cheaper?) schools...
Right now I am a profesionall student.. Did my BS in 4 years, with help from the parents, they were very helpful, but the deal was Gradschool I was on my own...
for grad school I made sure I had a fellowship lined up... MS expected in May, PhD finished sometime down the rd (3-4 years), no $$ out of my wallet except for ~1500/year in fee's tuition and insurance is paid by working at the department, so deals are out there....
Bottom line if they know what they want to do, pick a good school and do it... if they arent sure (as I wasnt) the first year will be a partying waste... better off at a CC until they figure a field out... lets you try a wide range of courses without the big bucks...
If I can ask (more out of curiosity than any expectation of being able to help) what field(s) are they looking to study and where?
good luck... I know how you feel, my younger brother went to Bryant (27K...) he had loans and scholarships, but still was expensive... I was the bargin child... U....R.....I!!!!
Also, if they get scholarships, make sure they keep grades up, I lost 2G's in scholarships cause I drank my weight nightly my feshman year and my GPA was scraping 2.0...
Also, to add on to what B-W said, make sure they like what they do and pick something with Jobs.. Marine Biology sounds fun, but most of them end up going back and getting a teaching certificate... My buddy just finished law school, and his JD... he decided he doesnt want to be a lawyer right now, so he's working at CVS with 100K+ in student loans
Oh, and if you wanna sell some gear... let me know
Hope this long, rambling nonsensical post was some help
Bryan