I think that many students who take on huge college debt (along with their parents) simply don't fully understand what they are doing. In some cases the lenders don't fully disclose, and in others they just don't do the math to see exactly what will happen down the road.
A couple of examples.
Several years ago a woman I knew told me her daughter was remaining in school, continuing to rack up debt, even though she didn't have a clear goal to graduate, because she knew that once she left school the clock would start ticking on paying back. Dumb. I told the mom that and she agreed but the daughter was over 21 and this was her debt, not the parents'.
Once a woman whose daughter was getting ready to finish high school and go off to college, told me that her kid would be able to get some rather large sum of money in financial aid. She specifically named Pell grants. I told her that I was pretty sure Pell grants were not that large, and she should please double check. She did, and thanked me. A lot of the money would be in loans, and it was making her help the daughter re-think where to go to college.
In addition, too many students decide to major in something that seems interesting without ever considering what kind of job will exist at the end of that schooling. And most of them never visit their school's career center, or whatever they call it. Our community colleges are for the most part very good, and have lots of programs that lead directly to good jobs in two years or less.
Some years back I got into a discussion here with someone who was defending his getting some sort of liberal arts degree in something totally impractical (17th Century French poetry or some such) because down the road when he was working he wouldn't have the time to read that poetry. I tried to convince him that he can always take classes that interest him on a part time basis, and he'd be vastly better off having a good, well-paying job. Don't think I convinced him.
= new reply since forum marked as read