You're missing opportunity cost. If you're in school full-time, you're not working full-time. That costs the salary you're not making and the experience you're not getting, on top of what you pay for school plus interest (because unless your parents are rich or you're That Counterexample, you're borrowing).

In return, you go to school, which one hopes is worth the cost over the course of the rest of your life, however you measure it (but here, mostly in currency). Which brings us back to this discussion.

It isn't fair to include an opportunity cost in this calculation because yoy wouldn't have most of those opportunities without college.

People don't work or learn without having attended college college?

There exists people who work or learn without having attended college.

However, to include college time in the opportunity cost, it would need to be 'for all', not 'there exists'.

Your argument is only valid if you are assuming that tuition is paid for out of pocket. If you have to finance that $50k, you will most likely end up paying closer to $80k. The 80k assumes a 15 year repayment at current rates, if they can pay more and get it done in 10 years it drops down to under $70k.

The $50k is assuming financing. Nobody realistically pays for college tuition out-of-pocket unless they were lucky and their parents set up a fund for it.

Source: myself and literally every single college person I know who attended public universities in the Midwest

I paid out of pocket. Just had to do the national guard for 6 years. They paid for like, 90% of it. It was pretty dope.

Very nice, I forgot about the military covering school as well. Thank you for your service.

Yeah, there are some stipulations. Like, you have to go to an in state school. You do give up a significant chunk of your weekends and summers. I was a year behind all of my peers due to training.

But to have almost zero debt is worth it. More people should consider it.

Kudos to you for serving. Thank you. More kids should do the same. I did.