Study abroad isn't all that expensive depending on what you do. A lot of the schools simply charge the home tuition as part of the program and you just fly over there. Again with the live at home thing...that keeps being trotted out here as though it is an option for 100% of people and it's just not. This wasn't my experience but I knew people kicked out at 18 or parents that just didn't want a 20 year old living at their house for free. Then you have alcoholics and addicts that people really aren't in the mood to live with once they don't have to...I think you both are drastically overstating the % of people that refuse to do anything but go out of state. I would say that most people in a financial crunch go to a state school. You run into a problem with doctors or other specialized careers where getting into a top program actually does matter a lot. WI is lucky that it has UW med school but that is just in WI. You will probably disagree with me here and play the walking uphill both ways card, but I don't think money should be something that prevents a person from getting quality specialized education. If you are studying accounting then just go to UW-W, it is just not the simple when you get into law, medicine, etc...and the argument that they'll make so much money it doesn't matter it is just not true anymore. There are also less lucrative but "good" careers that require advanced degrees. Ex., things like social work, research fields, etc. But I recommend reading some of the subs on Reddit sometime...it is full of people driven to the brink from med school debt...they want to finish but don't know if they can because they owe a 4 BR house before they're even done. Even if you are a general practice MD, $250k is a major problem for anyone just starting out. The statement that you don't need to take on massive debt to get a degree in WI is true. I will concede that it is. It gets more complicated when you begin to talk about what that degree is in. This also assumes you get into Madison. I went to Whitefish Bay, and there were LOTS of extremely bright students who didn't get in. I believe at the time, class rank was used, I don't know if that's still the case. A 3.8 GPA in my class would've crushed you from getting into any school that used class rank. You wouldn't have been in the top 1/5 of the class. What about those that pursue higher ed later in life with families? There are just too many variables to boil this down to "live at home," and "they're irresponsible with money." I wish there would be some appreciation for the nuances of the conversation from the other side here.