85k should definitely cover your expenses. You can rent out a bedroom instead of a house. Buy a cheap car. Eat canned beans. Even in SF, it’s doable on 85k.
Dreaming of something does not make it real.
Even in Germany, where going to university is very cheap, people have such dreams of social ascent by getting a degree. Here is a German article about how this does not always go well:
> https://www.blaetter.de/ausgabe/2016/august/exzellente-entqu...
> https://archiv.telepolis.de/features/Exzellente-Entqualifizi...