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> paying and extra $12k per year to live in a dorm "for the experience"

This is disingenuous, as there are many universities that do require first year students to be on campus, with limited exceptions.

> Part of the student debt crisis are families making poor economic choices.

Sure, but the impression most families and arguably American society at large have (which is a mix of truth, "belief", and maybe self fulfilling prophecy) is that the more prestigious schools, which also tend to be private, will land you a better job by virtue of the name or networking. It's harder to turn down an opportunity with that in mind, especially as student debt is hard to really grasp the magnitude of as an 18 year old never having dealt with that much money.

There's a state college in almost every city that you can commute to. It's not disingenuous to talk about forking an extra $12k a year "for the experience".

But living in the dorms can make you lifetime friends that might be worth well more than $12k

$50k in extra debt is a whole lot of money to pay in exchange for the promise of friendship.

And I get it, and the value. But most people would be better served with an alternative system.

> $50k in extra debt is a whole lot of money to pay in exchange for the promise of friendship.

I'd amend this to "the possibility of friendship".

I'll add that I got a professional friendship from college that's lasted sixteen years so far - very much the kind of thing the GP was talking about.

Both of us were commuters doing the last two years of our degrees at a commuter school.

We didn't need to pay for dorms to meet each other and develop friendships.

> Part of the student debt crisis are families making poor economic choices.

I am not sure families are the ones to blame here. Astronomical tuition and loan interests that cannot be forgotten in bankruptcy is a predatory combo.

In the European countries you mention no student start their professional like with $50k-100k in unforgivable debt.

Parents and their children choose these astronomical loans when there are much more affordable options. Every student coming out of a mediocre private school with $120,000 in debt could have received the same education for less than a third of that. They're absolutely sharing a large portion of blame when they make that choice.

What? A predatory system isn't predatory because poor, uneducated people should make better decisions? That is exactly why the European systems don't have gotchas.

The US system sells dreams that don't come true, and you blame them for believing that they can do better in their life than their parents by getting an education? Absurd.

The gotcha in the German university system is studying 4-5 years and then dropping out without degree, because there is very little support and a culture of expecting knowledge and not teaching knowledge, which hits underclass students the hardest.

I'm not saying that it is perfect, but it is better than the institutionalized slave labor system in the USA.

> In Germany, students are heavily segmented into tracks from an early point in their academic career, and if you're not in the traditional "college" track, tough luck: it's very difficult to get moved.

I heard the last part is changing thanks to "Gesamtschulen" (schools with all 3 tracks and a way to switch after you finish your track).

But anyway, it’s not as if that’s the only way. Vocational training is another way to go to college.