What if they decided they would rather be a teacher? A musician and band director? A serial backpacker? What if they are injured and can no longer take the 40, 50, 60 hours in a chair at the office it would require to maintain the level of salary?
Just because a college degree is often a great ROI doesn’t mean that it can justify the expense for all students, or even for all students with a "wise" career in mind at time of enrollment.
If you want to go into a less competitive career, going into a less competitive school can make a lot sense, often because the less competitive schools can have better programs appealing to less lucrative fields because the pressure is less severe than it is for an MIT undergrad.
Another top-school engineering graduate I know spent 5 years building water facilities (pumps, wells etc) in Africa.
There are literally government-subsidized student loan forgiveness programs for exactly this purpose.
> A serial backpacker?
Most student loans are backed by the government. As a tax payer I have no interest in subsidizing someone's backpacking trip. You can't be a serial backpacker if you have a car payment, rent, or a mortgage either.
> What if they are injured and can no longer take the 40, 50, 60 hours in a chair at the office it would require to maintain the level of salary?
A. Disability insurance exists for exactly this reason
B. You can make the same argument against getting a mortgage. FUD.