Indeed, @Postmodern, $160K may be small to you, but not to most people.
And I’m wondering if your example is flawed. If, for instance, the starting salary was $20K a year when you graduated, then $10K then is comparable to $40K in loans now, which most people would consider reasonable for a CS major.
The tech bubble may burst and interest compounds while it’s almost impossible to discharge student loan debt under current rules.
I’ve lived on $90K before (I’m sure you have too), and even while being fairly frugal and single in a high-cost city, after taxes and living expenses, you have, what? 20K left over? That’s a lot of years of payment to retire your student loans rather than saving in a rainy day fund (the tech industry had big swings up and down) or to go towards retirement or a house. That’s a lot of years of compounding working against you rather than for you.
And sure, you may hit it rich at MIT, but what if you don’t?