The elite media loves to obsess about the Ivy Leagues. But great public colleges like the City University of New York, once dubbed the Harvard of the proletariat, are far more relevant to most people — and infinitely better at serving the working class.
The aforementioned CUNY schools (and the larger SUNY system) are tuition-free for those under $125k in income, so you don’t necessarily have to do that in New York anymore. Only catch is you have to work in New York State for at least as long as you were in school, which I don’t think is unreasonable at all for a free degree.
But it’s still good advice.