I did most if not all the right financial things while in college, going to a lesser UW school than Madison, and walked out something like $23k in debt after 5 years(150 credits required for CPA). And frankly, I don't see anything wrong with that amount of debt...it really shouldn't be difficult to pay that down in your first handful of years after college. When you walk out of college, most people will walk into a job paying something like $45-55k a year. Some better, some worse depending on your field...but a good chunk of people walk out into that range. That's probably something like $2.8-3.5k per month after taxes/benefits/etc. Most walk out with no kids, no mortgage, probably wind up with a car payment, but very little of that take home is fixed into big stuff like that. There's absolutely no reason most kids can't be pumping $600-800 or more per month into their student loan debt and getting it paid down in 4-5 years...or at minimum taking a massive chunk out of it the first 2-3 years before the other big stuff starts popping up. But most kids don't understand that(insert required personal finance course). Shiny new tv, $900 for the newest iphone, $100+ a night at the bar 3-4 nights a week...and instead make the minimum payments on their student loan debt and take 20 years to pay it off...complaining the last 15 about how they shouldn't have to pay for it.