You are being downvoted but that was exactly my experience. It wasnt hyperbole. I was told my entire time in k-12 you need to get a college degree by everybody. Parents, teachers, counselors. Additionally they said, with no exaggeration, to get any degree, at any school, and take out as many loans as you need. So yes an entire generation of kids were told the $60,000 in debt for a latin dance degree at a no-name school was better than no degree at all.