DH incurred no debt from grad school at all (his degree is in science, and everything was covered). He did incur debt from undergrad, but it was long enough ago (and he had scholarships and fin aid) that it was not a big deal.
My own alma mater ranks pretty highly in terms of selectivity but is also considered a "bad bargain" because so many of its graduates choose to enter the arts, social sciences, nonprofits, etc. It was recently named somewhere as one of the worst deals in higher education because of this (it is a private liberal arts school). I acknowledge that it's a very pricey college, (like all private liberal arts schools, pretty much) and I wouldn't recommend going into major debt to go there and then becoming a Brooklyn performance artist/barista. But I also take issue with this line of thinking when applied too broadly. My friends who are social workers, writers, musicians, and nonprofit workers are not failures because they don't make 6 figures. To the contrary, they absolutely represent the inquisitive, community-focused spirit of the school. I do worry about the school's graduates of today who likely have the same dreams, but larger debt loads.
Something is rotten in Denmark with this whole business.
