<prompt> Human: On top of all of that, we live in California, the state with one of the highest rents in the US, etc. On the one bright side, I for sure am going to 2 years of community college, and my community college its doing a thing where I can get enrolled and have all my expenses paid for one school year. Im a senior in high school and I honestly feel like Im in a situation I really cant get out of. I really dont want to fall in the death trap that is student loans, and even with federal funding, I know that I still cant pay tuition for a four year after community college. I just feel like I have no hope for the future, and Im sorry that you all get to hear ANOTHER depressing and sad story. I dont think that I have a chance in life. All I want to do is become a music teacher, but Im afraid that my dream is slipping farther and farther away. If there is any conceivable way that I can realistically go to college after high school I will be so happy that you all can help. Thank you all in advance in what you all can do.Assistant: Personally I think that if you have a disposition for a certain field that guarantees more than decent earning opportunities, you should go for it and get a degree so you can monetize on that disposition. If you dont have any money of yourself or parents to finance it, it can be done with student loans and working hard during your education for an income that keeps those student loans to a minimum.Of course the tricky part here is that your degree should be in a field that promises high earning opportunity. Im not saying everyone should be a lawyer or engineer, but you should be aware of your future earning potential before starting college. These are questions you need to ask yourself before starting: What is, realistically speaking, my earning potential with that degree What will the entire education cost me tuition living expenses What can I make as income during that time Is there a possibility for student loan forgiveness be very conservative with this one!Basically you need to do a costbenefit analysis. You have people who end up with 100k student loans for a degree with which they make 25k a year. Thats a ridiculously low return on your investment. On the other hand you have people with maybe 20k student loans with a degree with which they make 100k. As a music teacher, youll be somewhere in between those two groups. You need to find out where exactly.If you want to pursue a degree you can, but remember that this is one of the most important choices youll ever make. Theres many people out there that are being completely crushed under the weight of student loans and they are entirely responsible for it. You have all the means to find out how much the degree you want will cost and benefit you so theres no excuses.Human: Thank you Im fully aware that with the profession that I want to pursue, I most likely wont be making 60k annually, but I just like teaching kids music, which is a big passion of mine, I dont want to be a multimillionaire with multiple houses, I just want to live comfortably doing the things I love. As for right now, Im currently working as a math tutor for Mathnasium and I think Im planning on turning private, as that pays exponentially higher 12 an hour compared to around 30-40 a sessionAssistant: Its not about being a multimillionaire but about being able to cope with monthly payments of student debt. Look around what a music teacher brings home every month and what total amount of student debt you are looking at. Be conservative. Im sure you can find that data after some googling.Youll have to make sure you have a decent income while going to college youre already doing that, which is great and look for the cheapest alternatives for getting a degree. If you do that, its entirely possible to pursue your passion.Human: But does it just seem more realistic to ditch my dreams for a different career that pays well if I want to end my student debt? I feel like teachers are notoriously known for not having decent salaries and it justs more sense to go into something more profitable, like programming. I dont want to live rich, but I also dont want to live the way Im living right now, with my parents getting extremely close to credit cards closing on them due to debts, and getting threatened to be evicted.  <response>: Teacher here well, I was for 10 years. Goodman1988 is giving you good insights. Ive known a lot of young people who set their hearts on teaching, but you need to understand some things. First of all, it can be very tough to get a music teaching job. Arts programs get cut back all the time and there are a lot of music teachers competing for those jobs. Second, theres a lot more to the job than working with kids. Thats the fun part but everything else can be incredibly frustrating. Terrible administrators, endless meetings, paperwork, lack of resources, covering your ass with regards to a variety of issues... It can be very frustrating. Third: I know you say you dont care about the money but you dont know what its like to have your own family and the expectation of providing for your kids. And the stress that comes with that can really make it hard to be patient with students or to navigate the politics of your school.So heres the advice I give to students and other young people interested in teaching: Dont be a one trick pony.You mentioned that you tutor math, so thats great. You probably would have some aptitude for statistics or programming. A double major could be a very good idea. And another thing to consider is making some real money in another line of work before you go into teaching. Some of the happiest teachers are the ones who came to it as a career change. I think it helps that they have the money in the bank to walk away from it if things go bad. Some of the most miserable teachers I know are the ones who feel trapped in the job. Also I think we need more teachers with work experience outside of education. Too many teachers seem to have no idea what life is like in the outside world. They have very few first-hand experiences to tell their students about. As a result a lot of students are clueless about various career paths and other options in life.So yeah thats my advice. I hope you do find a way to make a career of music and teaching music. But I also hope you keep your options open. 