I don't think it's entirely fair, I think the expectation is that students know they need to go to college and they understand they can only go to college via loans. Accordingly, they know that the terms are what they are, there really isn't much variation, so they just go ahead and sign the papers to get it over with.

There should be counselors for this sort of thing too. However, I can't fault an 18-20 year old for not really having any sense of scale about how much >$50k is, even if they understand the paperwork clearly. They likely haven't slogged through years of work in a job they hate just to make ends meet. Any experience up to that point is likely with little bills and a low paying job. Even if these loans were made interest free, the principal getting that high in the first place is the larger issue. This is when the decision gets to the parents, and the drum beat for as long as I've been alive has been "go to college to get a good job!", conveniently ignoring the trade schools and other opportunities.

It seems difficult to teach the hard lessons and experience of personal finance without them actually being hard lessons. Unless something else is driving everyone to accept student loans.

Should.

Most of those adults are treated like legal children up to and beyond their first year of college. There's a lot of paperwork adult students can't even fill out by themselves when applying for college until they're 24 unless they've been emancipated.

My SO went back to school for another degree as an established professional, and her university addressed her graduation paperwork "To the parents of...". If colleges aren't even comfortable addressing the people they intend to graduate as independent adults, what opportunities do you see students have in filling that role themselves?

And for some, loans are their only opportunity to attend school. It takes experience most don't yet have to realize that $1000 is a lot of money to spend and not a lot to have. To those, it's. "just the cost of college".