https://www.wsj.com/articles/financially-hobbled-for-life...

One example is getting a Master’s in film from Columbia, racking up 181k in debt, then making 30k a year.

One of my granddaughters is starting in the fall at a expensive private school in California and majoring in dance. Unless she makes it in Hollywood, or something like that, she and her parents will have a big debt and she'll be teaching dance in a high school somewhere and they'll be lucky to pay off their debt by the time she's 50. And, this takes into account the money her grandparents saved up in a college fund for her that will probably not cover much more than tuition for the first year. The basics of economics seem missing from this equation, and I'll admit that I haven't spoken up too loudly for fear of alienating my daughter whose attitude is to support whatever the kid wants. I submit that this a big problem going forward and that my family is part of the problem and not the solution.

Let me add that the money we've saved up in her college fund would go a long way toward a college education at a state university, particularly in her home state of New York. There is a good state school there that's fairly highly ranked in dance, but it's in the northern part of the state, and doesn't have the nice weather or the prestige of the California school that was chosen. Those two factors were crucial in her decision-making process.

Some six or seven years ago a couple of friends asked my advice since they both had daughters going to college and majoring in Elementary Education. I suggested that since they were going to get a MA anyway, why not get a Child Psychology certification, go a year longer and pretty much be assured of employment. One of the young women did just that and had a job early in her final Spring semester. The other did not and sub and waitressed until she re-enrolled to get the Child Psychology designation. Now she is accumulating more debt. I wish students were told these things, because the information they need are often just glossed over and not truly explained.