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What about paying to send three kids to college at about the same time versus two? Couldn't that be as big a consideration as the physical limits for fitting car seats into a car?

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You are basically saying that having 3 kids is more expensive than having 2 kids, which is more expensive than having 1 kid... and that people take the extra cost into consideration before having a kid.

Indeed, they do, obviously. In many ways having a kid is quite a potent contraceptive (for having another kid).

https://www.statista.com/statistics/183790/number-of-familie...

That chart is highly confusing. For example, if a family has three children spaced 2 years apart, they would only contribute to the three children part of the plot for just over half the time that they contribute to something other than no children part of the plot.

You are right. Good catch.

If you're under financial aid thresholds that often doesn't matter. The financial aid formulas (at least when I went to college, overlapping with my sister for 3 out of the 4 years) were that the college figured out an expected family contribution, it was split between the number of kids enrolled that year, and then the college makes up the difference with financial aid. My sister's tuition dropped by half when I entered college.

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