Yeah college is expensive as ****. The problem is most degrees don't teach you to do anything, which means the degree basically just says you can put but in a starting position one place higher in responsibility than people with just a high school degree (starting) and the same goes for those with/without a high school degree. The same is true with B.S./B.A. versus Masters versus PhD (for the sciences at least).
You really gotta look at expected values and know (at least) what you don't want to do for the rest of your life before you commit to paying anywhere from 20k-50k a year. Basically, if you aren't in engineering or get a luck starting job you will probs be making 20-30k per year after graduation. It would be hard to spend less than 20k per year to live (including everything). If you are 80k in dept (you pay for your entire degree at an instate school), you will be paying around $800 a month = 9.6k per year. So yeah, if you make 30k you will pay that dept off in 10 years and have no spending money or savings. This is worst case.
Of course, you can make more than that and will surely get raises, so this will get better over the ten years. Plus after five years most people will move jobs, which means about a 10k increase in salary due to the experience. Also, even doing a whatever job will eventually lead to a manager position which can pay between 50-90k +++ depending on your experience. So if you work hard you don't have this glass ceiling holding you down, with a degree you have the ability to rise in your company through various roles. Without the piece of paper, it is a lot harder to do this because people won't trust you with responsibility ( I would have to get into company promotion pathways to really explain why you are so heavily judged by your incoming position versus your merit at work, but that would take longer).
The point is a degree can do a lot for you if you are willing to take certain jobs you may not like. But, at the same time they are a huge waste of money if you view them as goal in themselves. What do you expect to do getting an English degree? Do English??? Write books, know about books? You either can go into editing, go on to grad school to become a prof, or do something completely unrelated. Only by doing something different can most people find financial success. They are called liberal arts schools/degrees not because they teach you to do art (you have a better getting into Harvard law than becoming a professional artist), but because they teach you to think critically and require upper level problem solving skills to accomplish (usually). There are of course many other reasons to go to college (like beer and *****es) that I won't get into, but that is why LA colleges exist.
So yeah, you gotta have the right goal going in and be able to think 20 years down the line for when that diploma will really pay off, and it can, but you have to be ready for low income first 10 years after graduation until that debt is payed off. But wait. WTF am I even talking about. Who am I talking too? Is lightside the opposite of darkside? Was there character development??? Why am I not on the PR? PP...**** you ****!