You make a lot of good points. I’d wager that obtaining the lower costing degree makes better sense. I had to make a similar decision about 10 years ago.

I originally moved back to the states to pursue a Building Science degree because that was the big hot thing that all my peers in commercial construction management had and it was the one thing keeping me from moving to the top of the ladder.

However I quickly stopped pursuing that degree when I realized that this area was over saturated with Building Science graduates and the graduates weren’t earning as much as I earned as a tradesman before I went the commercial management route.

I didn’t see the sense in spending ~$60k plus losing 3-4 years of income only to be able to earn $70k-$100k per year when I made more than that with just a high school education and a tool belt.

So I went back into service and repair work on my own and left the commercial world behind.