This just speaks to someone not really understanding or appreciating the current higher education system.
Back in the 70s when I’m assuming you went to school, you could work in the textile mill over the summer and afford to go to school without student loans. You just can’t do that anymore.
Undergraduate tuition at the university of South Carolina is $12,668 a year. Even if you made $12 an hour over the summer you would need to work over 1,000 hours during the summer just to earn gross amount of tuition. Then you add taxes, living expenses, etc.
It’s just not possible today.
Even when I was a summer associate at a large law firm that paid us a first year salary as a recruiting inducement, I barely made enough money that summer to cover my law school tuition.