Editor’s Note: We are honored to welcome guest columnist Don Harrold from practicaldad.com.  This article is the second in his three-part series exploring college planning. The first column, published in January, is “Rethinking the College Model.” The experience of choosing a college is very different when you’ve got a teenager and are looking at it [...]

Orthodontists and College. No two words scare me more since each involves kids and significant amounts of money.

But college is the scarier word. Orthodontia might or might not be required, but if the kids are going to have a leg up in the world, then some form of higher education will be required.

What an interesting contemporary question: will our kids ever leave?  I left home at sixteen to go away to college and never returned, except for visits.  I stayed close to my parents, and they did help me financially through college, though I worked every summer to supplement my education expenses and pay for my own [...]