This is what I said when this came up last month:
From the parents perspective here , my spouse and I made a decision early on that one of our primary financial goals was to ensure that our children completed their education debt-free. My parents did this for me and it represents a core value we hold. I am grateful that pediatrics is one of those medical specialties where we can do this.😛
I only ask my children one thing. No, it's not to be successful professionals, they will do that anyway. It is to do the same thing for their children if at all possible.
The question about fairness or equitable giving to children is not an issue for us. Although each of our children is or will be pursuing post-undergraduate degrees that come with tuition, etc, the amount of support they will need to graduate completely debt free is different. So what? The point isn't to give the same amount of money to each child, it's to ensure that they don't have educational debt. Fairness is about making sure that needs are met, not that everyone gets the same thing. Now, as old folks, when we think about our inheritance, we believe it is best to split evenly amongst our children. That is not only the simplest thing, but allows each to feel like their future needs are equally valued.
Also, although I can appreciate to some degree the sentiment that one wouldn't want to pay for a degree that might not seem to be a great one to launch a career from, I think it's important for us to support the education that our children want to obtain, not to push them into a degree they don't want. So, we would have supported any educational degree(s) they wished to pursue.