Student loans are wack, yo.
It's extra weird if your not used to
needing them. Like, for me the tuition cost per semster was about 500, which includes a semster ticket for bus and train, and also newly introduced. The idea of someone ending up with 100000+ debt just doesn't really compute.
Of course, for Mathilde it was all costs associated with growing up, plus the training costs. And I can see the Grey College not being able to easily eat the costs, since they take in a lot of young children, and unlike the Gold, Celestials or Jade, don't have easy income streams. (Not that they particularly want to, because it's a nice tool and test)
I'm kind of wondering about the other colleges now. Ambers don't need much. Brights have military service, but there's a lot of ways fire can be useful in general. Interesting enough, but the Amethyst and Light order both have some degree of asceticism. I wonder if some part of that is that they just don't have great ways of making money.
The lights could heal, though there's a lot of competition from priests, who most would prefer. Truth telling is also something easily monetized, but they also take in a lot of children, most of whom don't make magister.
@Boney Has the money making of the different colleges come up in your world building already?