It all depends what you study in college.
If you major in nursing, accounting, one of the other business related fields, one of the science fields, as examples, you are getting education which will qualify you for employment in such fields.
If you major in women’s studies, black studies, etc. you are not getting an education which qualifies you for particular job fields after graduation.
As far as the cost is concerned, students and their families really have to have conversations about all of this. They have to talk about the cost / benefit of going to a private university vs. their state colleges. They have to talk about going to community college, then transferring to a four year university, and look at costs/benefits of that. They have to talk about how much the family is able/willing to spend, vs. what will have to be borrowed.
They could even discuss having the student take more than four years to get through, by working their way through college.
They have to talk about the real world impact of a student having tens of thousands in debt at the end of the line, and how does it get paid back. It’s one thing to talk about borrowing to get a degree in nursing or a business field, for which you can get a good paying job after graduation with which to repay loans. It’s another altogether to get loans to get a degree in women’s studies.