Sorry, but no, you don't get to do this. You don't get to control (yes, I said control) your girlfriend when it comes to what she studies in college! (If you wrangle her into doing something she doesn't want to do.....let's just say it will indeed be a point of contention for the rest of your relationship, especially if she is miserable/unhappy in whatever field she ends up in.)

What do you get to do? You have a few choices. You accept your girlfriend for who she is, debt and all, or you get out and move on. Yep, that's pretty much it.

I know you want what you want, you want kids, you want this, you want to be debt free......but you're willing to control your girlfriends *entire* future just to get what you want? This sounds a bit selfish because you're not taking her wants and needs into consideration.

As I said, accept her for who she is, debt and all.... or get out. You can talk to her about it, let her know that the debt may hinder future life choices, but in the end, you don't get to convince her to do whatever.....she needs to make these decisions for herself.

And yes, I have been through a LOT of school. I had a TON of debt. (It was a disgustingly large amount.) I know how crippling debt is. The *only* ray of light in becoming disabled was full discharge of my federal loans. Honestly, if I had that debt over my head with no way out and no way to even work, I'd probably have offed myself by now. I say this because I know how much debt can cripple your future. For the first time in history, there are Americans saying that the education they received wasn't worth it because of the debt they accumulated. The feds are giving a little relief, but in the end, its not much.

You're in a hard space....you can't control her future, you love her, yet you don't want to be crippled by her debt. You've got hard decisions to make. (But the decision to "convince" her to do something other than what she wants to do, when it comes to education, is not one of them.)

ETA

It doesn't really matter what you think she'd be good at or what you think she'd be successful doing. I have talents which I absolutely hate. People have told me that I'm awesome at XYZ but the truth is that I HATE "XYZ". I am really concerned that you seem to want to control her so much.