Scholarships, community colleges, working and training programs all help out college students. And don't get me started on trades that make $50-$100k after a few years.

I have a HS friend that retired from Philip Morris (manufacturing - not white collar) at age 50 with almost $1,000,000 in his retirement account. When the economy fell a dozen years ago, I went broke. That PE license of over 20 years (at that time) did nothing to help pay my bills.