A co-worker’s wife has racked up...
Wait for it...
$240,000.
For what you ask....a PHD in Spanish.
She is enrolled year round, as they use the loans to supplement their income. It was a lean summer for them, a few years ago, when she couldn’t find a class to take. No loan equals less fancy food. (and their food is fancy - they shop at the snooty organic grocery store).
So they are certainly using the loans for living expenses. I once suggested to my co-worker that, perhaps, it would be wise to only spend the loans on tuition. He acted like I had just belted out a crude obscenity in front of a group of nuns. To him, it was absurd. They had to use the loans for living expenses...the alternative would be a part time job on her part, which would delay her degree.
So its a train wreck waiting to happen.
The “big education” cycle is golden in Wash DC.
It’s another conduit of money.
Charge massive tuition, pay admins and profs big salaries, they donate lots to Democrats. And repeat....