I think this is the right take. It's really easy to nitpick the decision making in retrospect, but I think people need perspective. Are we expecting all 18 year olds to be good financial planners now?

I certainly wasn't educated on the long term consequences of debt when I was that age and I was relatively well off. We are, after all, discussing education. So the person who is striving for an education is being criticized for not being financially educated enough from the start?

I know that somebody is going to get on my case for defending ignorance. But maybe we shouldn't have systems in place that allow millions of people to make the same wrong decision? Fault can lie on both sides.

Maybe the difference here is that she chose to pay for a masters, which is a graduate degree. I think the personal responsibility argument carries more weight at that point.