At first I thought maybe you were cherry-picking some examples from more prestigious schools. Then I checked on the tuition rates for the schools I attended. $29,000/yr for the less desirable school. $35,000/yr for the more desirable/well known school. That's the IN STATE rate. Neither of these are considered top tier or prestigious by any means. Just regular state schools that are virtually in the middle of nowhere.

Let's say you get a student job on campus to help cover costs. In my state you can only work a maximum of 19.5 hours per week in a student job by law. If you earn minimum wage (which you probably will) you can earn a maximum of $14,327/yr while attending school with your student job. That isn't enough to cover housing at either of these schools, let alone tuition.

People used to joke about people who went into six figure debt for an arts degree from a private college. Now a degree from a no name state school will set you back six figures.

Well aware it's absurdly expensive.

I was just highlighting that whats taking 10k/year in public school tuition (18k for Michigan (!) ) to ~130k for the degree is the living expenses, which exist wether or not they attend school.