There are other options vs a large student loan debt.
R U N 3500 ...
Yes, you are absolutely right. My wife worked on her master's degree part-time over two years. She was fortunate to work for a company that paid her full master's degree and books (around $40,000) if she just signed that she would stay with the company for at least 24 months afterwards. It worked out very well and she got a nice promotion.
If you work for a company that has that type of benefit, it is great. But in most cases to get to the position she was in to have that opportunity, you would need a good undergraduate degree, which, going back to my original premise, typically costs a lot of money.
18 year old Johnny, born in a small coal-mining town, or Becky, born in an urban city next to a crack house, are not likely to have these benefits.
Rub a Dub