I majored in marine biology at a state school (UC Berkeley). I can tell you that the first two years is all basic bio-sciences requirements. Looking back it would have been much smarter to do them at a community college. I would have had better teachers and smaller classes. As it stood, I had my bio, chem, and physics pre-requisite courses in giant lecture halls with 700 other competitive pre-med students, and it was rough. I didn't get to do anything hands on until my junior year. After that I loved it, but those first two years were so hard, as those classes are designed to weed people out.
Of course, as an 18 year old I had no intention of going to community college because none of my friends were going. Luckily, I applied for a bunch of scholarships and got one that gave me 3500 a year. Between this, some parental support, working ~30 hours a week during the school year at $10 an hour and full time every summer, and student loans (only about ~6K) I was able to pay for school. But there are no job prospects for a marine biologist unless you have a higher degree, so after graduation I made 30K a year working at a marketing firm (this was 10 years ago). I ended up joining the peace corps to get some hands on experience in my field, and then getting full funding to do my PhD, and only after all that was my marine biology degree worth something.
I'm so glad my parents didn't put their retirement on hold to help me. They retired last year at 66 and I am thankful every day that they were able to save enough money and not be dependent on me in their old age. I'm also thankful that I was able to have a minimum amount of student debt. The small amount I had was still a pain in the ass to pay off, especially given that I didn't make more than 30K a year until I was 30. But the experience of paying them off made me never want to be in debt again. I'm thankful that my mom encouraged me to apply for every scholarship possible, every year, and to work while in school to offset the amount of loans I would need. That was really valuable experience for me, and I came out of school way more mature than many of my peers.
So I guess my advice to you is to help your daughter make an informed choice, but don't take out loans for her. If you want to help her pay for college, help her with a fixed amount each month to offset her expenses (even a few hundred a month is helpful). Let her take loans and work to cover the rest. If you are able to save some by the time she graduates, set aside a chunk and make her a graduation present of a first loan payment. Also, have her contact recent marine bio grads from the school she wants to go to and ask them how easy it's been to get a job in their field. Teach her about interest from student loans, and expected salaries with a four year degree, and how long it will take her to pay those loans off. It's a hard lesson, but better she learn it now than 4 years from now when she's 80K in debt.