There are jobs and careers for which having a 2-year college or community college on her transcript will close doors.
I am by no means an authority here, but that just strikes me as false. I transferred to Berkeley and I got the same degree on the same diploma as my husband who went there for four years. Except for the pre-employment verification where HR confirmed that what I put in my application was factual (post job offer acceptance), no one knew I went to JC. It just doesn't come up unless you put it on your resume. I certainly don't have it on my resume now and any background verification will turn up a legitimate degree. Same with Stanford: no one knows I went part-time while working because my degree is just as valid as those who went there full time.
If something like that narrows your opportunities in life then I suspect they are few, far between, and likely of the sort your kid already isn't in the running for since you are not some upper class, connected, special family.
I looked into it here, and found very few times was there any impact... especially for finance and engineering type degrees lawyers, etc. It matters about the last 2 (or 3 if you are a lawyer) years only.
Where it did matter was some humanities programs, where you had great summer co-op opportunities in junior years (an archeaology dig, for example or an art history exchange with a sister school in Paris), that just were not available at the junior college, but made a big difference. For some reason, Psychology licensing is quite difficult to get here without added years, if you don't start a single track and continue for 8 years with the same school.
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Money for kids -- Have you considered the fact that while your daughter is at school, you do not have to pay for her food, utilities, spending money, transportation etc as when she lives at home? That is some savings. Especially if you think of it this way...
6 kids x $2500 = $15k per year.
So, continue to spend $15k per year on the kids schooling-- targeting the money to the kids that are actually in school over the next 8 years, rather than saving for the youngest now. Kids will complete school and drop out the top end, giving more money to the kids just entering.
Add that to the savings of not having kids living at home with you, and you may find you are closing in on $20k per year available for costs. Do the math, so that each kid gets the same amount of money (inflation adjusted), in the end. Some parents even subtract out scholarships, as it is the OPPORTUNITY to go to college that they are guaranteeing, not the actual dollar amount.
NPC calculation will drop as more and more of your kids are in university at the same time, too. I think these calculations take the total disposable income to be applied to school, and divide by the number of kids in univeristy that year. So you may remain at $15k-$25k no matter how many kids are in school at once.
With 6 kids, are you certain that all 6 will be going to a 4 year college away from home? Some may WANT community college locally or trade programs.
Also, here we get a tax credit on the tuition costs -- do you get refund in the USA on your tax return? That adds up.
Other thoughts -- married kids, those out of high school for 4 years (and working full time), etc, do not have the same NPC calculations.
Private scholarships do exist, so apply to all of them. DD applied to over 20 this year, most only $1k each, with her GPA of 3.9 and community service, and received over $13k in money... She chose a "second tier" university which gave her a full year of tuition, too, because all the 4.0 GPA students wanted to go to the top tier names, even if they had to pay.
Lots of kids change their major / degree after 1-2 years in college, so transfer after 2 years may very well be in order, regardless.
I like the recommendation to see what the state school will offer you, and to look for cheaper 4 year colleges that have great transfer credits... I do understand that with 5 siblings, you daughter may just want to have her own independence after high school and be away from home for a while.