My son went to a community college so the cost was much cheaper than other institutes. He paid off his loan promptly as it was installed in him that a debt is always repaid.
He took machining and computer sciences and after working a couple years at a other machine shop he quit and is now the programmer and Forman of all vertical milling machines at his present employment (CNCs around 10 if I remember right) He now has about 18 people and many millions of dollars in machines to oversee. He is well compensated!