Give your kids college savings if they win a full scholarship?

[desertadapted]

Our current plan is that the kids will be entitled to 25% of the money saved through scholarships based on state school prices, once they've graduated in four years.   We want to provide an incentive to chase scholarships and acknowledge that their hard work is saving us money.  No requirement that they be mature about how they spend it.  Haven't worked out the kinks yet, and we don't want them to choose a weaker school in order to save money.  We have a few years yet to work out the details.

[Rural]

I got a full ride scholarship for four years which covered books and supplies as well as all tuition and fees. My parents paid my rent for at least a couple of the college years, but they also saved a good bit for my sibling, and then, when sibling didn't finish, for grandchildren. It ended up all going for siblings' children (because I didn't have kids), and I'm perfectly happy about it. It was always my parents' money, not mine, and anyway it was meant to pay for college, and I didn't need any money for that. Why would I complain?

[cacaoheart]

My daughter is 3 months old and my wife and I haven't worked out an exact plan for college finance yet. I started a 529 for her since we have many relatives that will likely want to make contributions over time, and already put a little in myself but am prioritizing retirement saving. Given that the 529 will consist largely of gifts meant for her, I see it as hers regardless of how much she ends up needing for school.

The "gift" my parents gave my brother and myself was to make sure we were well educated growing up and always told us that we were expected to go to college and that we'd have to get good grades to get there as they couldn't afford to pay any of it. My EFC was $42. I ended up getting a full ride room and board scholarship to one of the best public schools in the state, though that was a result of having high SAT scores and being valedictorian at a poor rural school where half the kids didn't graduate and few went on to any sort of college. My daughter will likely grow up in a more academically competitive area than I did, though if I'm semi-retired by the time she's in college her EFC may still be low.

My wife's parents were on the other end of the financial spectrum. She grew up in a highly educated area and graduated from a private high school where virtually everyone went on to college, making scholarships harder to come by. Her parents saw her as responsible and gave her full access to her college fund as a freshman, and she made it cover both undergrad and grad school. Anything left over after undergrad was hers to do with as she pleased. She remains more thrifty than me.