Three degrees in music (BM, 1981; MM, 1983; DMA, 1994), $0 debt. All state schools, full scholarship for the doctorate, frugal living throughout. Parents paid tuition when necessary, but it was very cheap back then. The biggest single expense was my instrument, which my parents bought for me with a home equity loan (very nice of them to do it). But I think I made up for it by not costing them very much otherwise, in general, plus the instrument appreciated in value (unlike, say, a car, which a lot of parents buy for their kids). TBH, I don't remember a lot of financial details of the earlier years because I was oblivious, but going to college then was a lot simpler and less expensive than it is now.
Then there's the (un)marketability of my degrees, but that's another story ...