Most if not all 529 savings plans allow you to use the money to pay for most expenses at essentially any (major) university in the world. This is distinct from prepaid plans, but I was never considering those anyways. I'm not concerned about penalties - you can reassign the beneficiary to another family member if, for example, child #1 gets a full ride at MIT as expected. All I want is some advice on how to choose among the many varied plans.