At my last job, I knew two young women who worked their way though college. They began at a community college, one lived at home, the other moved in with extended family. Then they got full time jobs, and went to school part-time, in the evenings, with part of their tuition paid by our company. (Both were business/economics majors.) It took YEARS to get their BAs. But they did it. One is now financing her master’s this way.
It can be done. But I agree that it’s harder than it used to be, continues to get increasingly more difficult, and it takes perseverance and a real commitment.