The best advice given to me was to get an education outside of aviation, get the most versatile, least expensive BS degree that you can get. And then get flight training afterwards. I came out of college with less than $8k debt. Flight training is very expensive of course but yes, getting an expensive degree coupled with flight training almost guarantees a life of debt servitude.

The economics of being a pilot are far out of equilibrium (thanks to the government's over-regulation) which means something will break soon.