The difference is a kid not in college likely has a job. . . ..I didn't realize that would need to be explained. . ..
Not sure the zeal to spin costs. . .but the final scene of Animal House leaps to mind with Kevin Bacon screaming hysterically
"All is well. . . . . All is well"
If an 18 year old decided to start a Subway franchise that cost $40k over 4 years and asked a bank for $100k, the banker would roll their eyes when the kid explained he was only going to dedicate 5 hours a day to running the business, didn't anticipate having any income for the four years and wanted the bank to support him entirely.
Parents who tell their kids to borrow $100k to get through college in Texas are parents who encourage their kids to finance the entirety of their living expenses for the first four years of their adult lives and do as little as possible.
The kid starting the $40k Subway franchise can expect to put in 12-14 hour days while he builds his business. The kid borrowing his living expenses spends 6 hours a day building his "business" (any employee is essentially an individual brand contracting to a client for a set amount of labor at a set rate). In 20 years, who has a better chance of being successful and self supporting, the kid who worked 12-14 hours building a business and borrowed as little as possible while he got his start, or the kid whose parents encouraged him to only put in 6 hours a day when he started his life and borrowed living expenses instead of learning how to be self sufficient.
We complain about how entitled the younger generation is, yet we encourage them to not earn a dime while young adults, to consider 30 hours a week as exteme effort and to step out of college entitled to a paycheck.
The problem giving our kids a screwed up impression of the expectations of being a young adult. If we teach kids job skills while we teach them professional skills, we will get graduates with less debt and more life skills. I can't believe the number of parents who think is is wrong to expects young adults in college to start learning how to support themselves. Trust me, snowflake will be OK if they have to help pay expenses while they are in college.
Using your numbers, each 3 hour class costs $2,500 to finance (using my numbers, it costs $1,000). Think placement exams and/or a course at community college during the summer to knock out a core history or government. Put together four classes and the kid has generated $10,000 (or $4k by my numbers). A full 10% reduction in the cost of a college education. An alternate path to one class a year is all that would require. Is that too much to ask of someone? If so, they don't want it bad enough.
