5 smart ways to save for college

The price of higher education is only going up. Here's how to prepare.

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Of the many hopes and dreams parents have for their children, one of the most common is that they will go to college.

Stay with that cap-and-gowned vision of the future for even a few minutes, however, and the anxiety-inducing thought creeps in: How am I going to pay for it? It's not a question most families can afford to put off, given the steep-and-getting-steeper price of higher education. If costs continue to climb as they have for the past decade, in 2033 it will cost around $262,000 to cover four years of tuition and room and board at a private college; at a public university, around $134,000.

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Alexis Boncy is special projects editor for The Week and TheWeek.com. Previously she was the managing editor for the alumni magazine Columbia College Today. She has an M.F.A. from Columbia University's School of the Arts and a B.A. from the University of Virginia.