I paid for my first degree in Geology totally out of my own pocket. I was a roughneck on the rigs during the summer and this paid for my education.
I made good wages as a consultant in the oilfield and it crashed and burned in 1983. We found to damn much oil and the price of oil went down the tubes.
I no longer had any marketable skills. I had some savings, but also sold my very nice house and airplane and went back to school to become a pharmacist. I was 35 years of age and thus needed a degree that offered high wages immediately upon graduation.
The last year of pharmacy school I was out of money. I took a student loan. I paid it back early.
The cost of university was very reasonable then. The vast resources of loans to students today has made university much more expensive. The University knows the student has access to great largess via loans. They have no incentive to keep costs down.
Addendum
Circa 1966 the Administrative building was about 20 offices in one wing of the Chemistry Building. It was small and efficient. Our student body was about 7000
Circa 1985 when I graduated again in pharmacy this time, The administration building was three floors that was about ten times the size of the offices back in 1966. The student population was only double of what is was in 1966.
You can never have too many administrators. :)
BTW, in 1882 I took a $2,300 COBOL IMS DB/DC course that consisted of 10 months, four nights a week. It got me into a six figure income by the mid-90’s and carried me through to today. I’m now 66 and plan on retiring at the end of the year.
Side note: Two of the guys I worked with over the years used to be chemists. I asked them what brought them into IT. Both said, “the money”. :D