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All learning is worthwhile - nobody is arguing you shouldn't go to college because it's a waste of time. The point is you need to think very carefully about your job prospects before you go into debt to get a degree. $15k debt for pretty much any degree is doable - you can pay that back pretty much no matter what job you get at graduation.

But going $200k into debt for a degree is financial suicide unless your degree is extremely marketable. An MD, say, or a law degree from Harvard or Yale. Even if everything goes the way you're expecting, and it may not, it's going to be decades before you're out from under that cloud.

At that debt level you've essentially traded your first house for your degree, and unless your career is wildly successful you're going to be in your 40s before you can afford to buy a place of your own.



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