It's a college education. Of course parents and kids are going to spend more. THINK OF THEIR FUTURES!! You don't want to be digging ditches or serving fries, do you?

Plus, loan repayments are, like, soooo far off, man. Live in the now.

Oh, and a really good sales pitch can make $45k for cooking school seem like a wise investment:
http://news.yahoo.com/culinary-school-grads-claim-were-ripped-off-203350240.html

As I've said before, this is an area where people are not equipped to be rational. So why would they refuse to pay higher sticker prices at 15% interest than they'll pay at 4%?