Or could have worked his way through college, instead of borrowing a huge amount of money.
Eh, because of the “student loan” scam and tuition fees ratcheting up well in excess of monetary inflation rates it’s not realistic to work through college, not in any meaningful sense of paying down debt. Those days are long gone. In my case I opted to go back in the military, it took a few years but I paid every bit of it back. I saw even then the university system was corrupted in some very, very sick ways.