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That sounds exactly like how car salesmen talk about the latest Ford pickup truck in order to get you hooked on an expensive car loan. And come to think of it, it is actually exactly the same scheme. And Americans are buying it.

That's the worst case price, too. It can be cut down substantially if you work a job along with it, get used textbooks, prepare your own food, etc.

I don’t think a good CS degree is “easily” worth $120k.

You'd be right if you got the CS degree by taking the easiest classes, doing as little as possible, and partying.

On the other hand, if you carefully select the courses, work to get the most out of the opportunities there, etc., you can get a very valuable education at UW. I've seen it too many times for that to be a fluke.

UW isn't going to hold your hand, it's up to you. There are a very large number of local UW graduates who became wealthy.

The same can be said about any education (even self taught). My point is 120k is a lot of debt.

As a hiring manager I don’t even care if you have a degree, I just want to see you can ship. There are a lot of viable alternatives to that 120k, as you say you just have to work hard to succeed, regardless of chosen path.