@lookingforward Our oldest dd is a COTA. She graduated with zero debt and makes more than the median income in the US. She is 100% a people person and has had an affinity for working with the elderly since she was in elementary school. She loves her job working in a rehab facility which serves mostly geriatric patients.
The premise that any local commuting school can meet student goals, though, still leaves a huge segment of students ill-served. The Allied Health program our dd attended is actually 4 1/2 hrs from our home. There are currently only 2 OTA programs in our entire state. (Not that unusual. http://www.aota.org/education-careers/find-school/accreditentrylevel/otaprograms.aspx )
This all goes back to the original premise of this thread. Local and commuting offers limited options. But going into debt is not necessarily the alternative.