What she did is she took the heavily marketed, easiest path to getting an "education." She applied to the programs that would accept her without doing her due diligence to figure out what the alternative paths were and what the field was about. What I'd like to do is make it much harder to do that.
I got through undergrad and graduate school with no debt. I paid no tuition. I worked in undergrad to support my living expenses (played in bands and other sorts of odd jobs). On internship and postdoc, early on, I lived in a big city and living expenses were tough so I worked as a musician to pay my grocery bills. When I made my decisions, I was always cognizant of the finances. I got into some very well thought of schools for undergrad. I was offered some financial assistance to attend all institutions applied to including things like waiving out of state tuition, music scholarships, and so on. I chose a lesser ranked in-state school that offered me a full academic scholarship. I would not have gone to graduate school in clinical psychology if I had to pay for it. Too risky. That's a lot of time and opportunity cost for an uncertain payoff. And, another note for thought, I went to a clinical science program. I effectively make 3 times what this woman makes. Same field? Sorta. These programs are selling borrowed prestige and putting people into social work. Which can also be a poor financial decision.
If you are not able to get scholarships and your parents are not wealthy or not willing to pay (mine were wealthy, I didn't want them to pay), the fiscally responsible answer, if you want to go to college, is go get an AA degree from community college and then do two years at a state school while working to minimize debt. There's no reason to graduate from undergrad with 50K in debt. I'd have been pissed if I got out of graduate school with 50K in debt. I am not unique. Lots of people work through school and minimize debt. There is a former student from our lab (an undergraduate volunteer) who made it through 4 years of undergrad with no debt (all at a 4 year state institution, no community college) by working at a grocery store.
Financial decisions are something people need to know about. Talk about money.
I come from a family that provides no support in my education. I went to a community college for my first two years of undergrad and worked full time and commuted to live in a cheaper area...you do the best with what you can. Many people have affordances that not everyone will have. I had good grades, I certainly did not have scholarships. After I graduated, I often asked myself what things could I have done differently, and the answer is: I'm sure a lot, but when you don't know, you don't know.
I worked full time during my undergraduate career, I didn't have the time available to conduct research as an undergraduate student. I know plenty of people who had this issue as well, as I am sure there are people whom had the opposite experience. I worked my ass off so I could go onto a career as a psychologist. I was a professional classical musician before this, I changed careers. Behind all of this, I knew that if I wanted a college degree, I would need financial assistance. My parents sure as hell wouldn't pay for it, my job covered my living expenses, I even had my fiancee chip in a lot of his earnings to help me. This whole idea that a certain percent of people who come from families that can afford to put their child through school, or have an affordance to get a scholarship is an exception, not the rule.
With my accolades and grades, I would have thought that I could get scholarships, but unfortunately I didn't. At the end of the day, I got a college education for the sake of educating myself, to not become another desk jockey like I had been doing, and what my mother has been doing for 35 years. I went this route to pursue a Ph.D. in psychology to become a psychologist. With my undergraduate stats that I have right now, I am not exactly sure if I would get into a program (I have good stats, 3.75, UNT, no publications or research experience). So, I wanted to take the more productive and logical route of getting into a master's program to help strengthen my attractiveness to be competitive for Ph.D. programs. This program does not offer funding, but it is one of the best experimental psychology master's programs in the state of Texas. The faculty, the course work, research opportunity and affiliations UT-Dallas has makes the debt seem worth it.
Dropping out of the program is something I wouldn't want to do. It would mean I would either need to select a new career path, or find some means of having someone else pay for this (I am all ears for options). I envy those who don't have to pay a dime for college tuition or fees, I didn't have that luxury, but I sure as hell wanted to become an educated person with a college degree. I hear the words "return on investment" as the sole or primary unit of measurement, and I would say there is so much more to having a financial/ monetary return of investment to rationalize getting an education.
I plan on working my ass off in this master's program, apply to Ph.D. programs afterwards and do what I can. I will either have the money to pay my loans, or I won't.
