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Re:NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students by alistairSH on Thursday August 16, 2018 @02:08PM (#17777131)
ROTC (military scholarship[1]) pays tuition as you go, so there's no debt incurred. If the military allowed[2], you could study underwater tiddlywinks without any concern for unpayable loans.

You're analogy works for academic programs that lead to careers that pay reasonably well. But, not for underwater tiddlywinks - no amount of time spent in that field will allow you to pay down the debt.

1 - They pay for four years, plus some expenses. Generally, if you drop out of the ROTC program after the start of year two, you owe Uncle Sam whatever has been paid on your behalf. If you finish the program, you are committed to 4+ years of service (differs by branch and job role, with some allowing the commitment to be split between active duty and reserve).

2 - ROTC programs prioritize technical degrees and foreign languages over other degrees.

Re:NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students by pandler on Thursday August 16, 2018 @02:36PM (#17777375)
> You're analogy works for academic programs that lead to careers that pay reasonably well. But, not for underwater tiddlywinks - no amount of time spent in that field will allow you to pay down the debt.

Agreed, but that’s your onus to calculate the cost/benefit (whatever those benefits may be) of any pursuit, not just academic. It’s just especially important for studying in the US, given the insane cost of education.

Like you said, there’s a skew towards technical degrees, but I think about me and my peers at 18 and man we had no idea what we were doing and had little context for how such a big life decision would affect us down the road.