<prompt> Human: First of all when I say I vetoed it I mean I said No. I would not go there if I were you. That is a bad idea and you will regret it in adulthood. Which is essentially the same as vetoing because my little sister really looks up to and admires me so takes my opinions as law. I could tell she was crushed after I said this, probably too harshly, but thats more rrelationships so I wont worry about it in this post.Only one of my parents works. They make about 140k a year before taxes but is about to accept a lower paying job 120k thats more fulfillingbetter for the worldetc. There are three of us kids. We live in one of the top 5 most expensive cities in the US. Basically what Im saying is while we are never hurting for money, we dont have a ton of excess beyond. My parents have been fantastic about paying for extracurriculars, club sports, camps, whatever myself and my siblings expressed interest in growing up. Just great parents and super supportive. Which is why they are really mad at me for saying this to my sister. The school she is looking at as her number one pic will cost around 66,000 a year including everything, tuition room and board etc. I went to community college for the first two years and then a public state university. I got a scholarship for women in sciences that paid for my entire last year of school. I worked all four years as well and only took out one small loan which I have since paid off. My parents paid for about half of my degree the community college portion. I have zero debt now for which I am extremely thankful and grateful to my parents. I also am an engineer so make ok starting salary money 55k pre taxes. Sister on the other hand wants to major in political science. I have seen my liberal arts major friends cry with frustration at the pressure of having so much debt and such low paying starting job prospects. Ive heard tales of people paying off their loans for 20 years after graduating. I DONT want that stress for my little sister, who has never even had a job yet no time since shes so busy with sports and clubs and whatnot. I of course want her to study whatever shes passionate about, but not somewhere thats going to gouge her financially. She may get some merit scholarships if she applies as she is an excellent student, but I doubt much financial aid due to my parents salary bracket. Basically what Im asking is is this just the norm now? Is it ok to spend 250k on your undergraduate degree??? I was always under the impression that medical school and law school were pretty much the only excuses to be spending that much. And if I AM being reasonable, what can I tell my parentssister to dissuade them or make them understand the reality of that amount of debt? I love my parents, and they want to retire soon. I love my sister, and I dont want to see her drowning in payments down the line. And my little brother hasnt even applied to schools yet so thats another expense a-waitin. Feel free to tell me Im an idiot if I am being one. Thanks reddit Ps typed on my phone hence the awful mistakes. SORRY! Assistant: This may be a better topic for rrelationshipsHuman: I guess I came here because I want actual financial opinions. I dont know anything about finances or loans since I only took out one and paid it back almost immediately. My mom said this was possible for my sister, I was dubious so posted here to hear what you guys think. Thank you though  <response>: Heres the Federal student loan interest rate table Id go ahead and make some favorable assumptions and walk through the math. Go ahead and assume that she manages to pull down federal subsidized loans for the entire principal at 4.66. This is NOT going to happen in real life. Also assume that she manages to get some scholarships and even that she manages to pay down some of the principal while shes in school in addition to being able to pay for housing, food, textbooks, lab fees, etc. without needing additional loans. Lets set her principal on graduation day at a generous 180k.Plug these numbers into a repayment calculator like this one and youll get some interesting results: It is estimated that you will need an annual salary of at least 111,507.60 to be able to afford to repay this loan. This estimate assumes that 10 of your gross monthly income will be devoted to repaying your student loans. This corresponds to a debt-to-income ratio of 1.6. If you use 15 of your gross monthly income to repay the loan, you will need an annual salary of only 74,338.40, but you may experience some financial difficulty.This corresponds to a debt-to-income ratio of 2.4.I used a 30-year repayment plan for the calculations because theres no way shed be able to pay back a 10-year loan: Using a loan term of 30 years instead of standard 10-year repayment reduces the monthly loan payment by 950.18 50.6, but increases the total interest paid by 108,990.55 239.4.This line is especially encouraging: With a loan term of 30 years, you will still be repaying your debt when your children enroll in college.All very damning, especially when you consider that this calculator doesnt factor in cost of living in its salary estimates - if youre in NYC, Boston, the Bay, etc. then that annual salary of 111k is already being stretched pretty thin by rent payments. Throwing an example budget together would illustrate very clearly that, even under ideal conditions, she would be royally fucking herself by taking out loans this big. 