My school was expensive but was marketed as cheaper. It was cheaper through scholarship, factored in Pell grants and did not comsider the extra fees from bureaucracy.
The problem is that when you try to work while paying for school the grants go down and you pay more and still struggle.
While you do this you see your school build a sports stadium and see host extravagant dinners with business clients. You see how much the president or dean makes and how much the professors make.
I gave up and transferred to a non-profit university and the experience was night and day. It was affordable and the staff worked for you.
Look down at community colleges all day but I work with people doing the same job making the same pay (know your rights) but i don't have 35 years of debt.
I got into University - they wanted $8,000/semester. Community College across the street offered 4 year degrees for $1200/semester.
That's another one that really bit me.
I got my associates at community college for fairly cheap, but because I declared my associates degree I was invalidated from a lot of grants as I started to struggle to pay for my bachelor's.
Such a strange and unfortunate crack to fall through when it seems apparent that one would want to complete a bachelor's.