There’s no reason you can’t go to uni and have a professional education. It’s all well and good to say live in a little… but not when the weekly rent is huge. And you need to live close to your shule, which is in the nicer suburbs, and costs more, right?
The important thing is to maintain shmiras halashon and even more importantly, shmiras eynaim, because the women will be underdressed there. But then… should you live as a hermit?
Didn’t the Rebbe attend engineering in berlin uni during the ’30?
Not every Jew has to be a fiddler or taylor. The expenses of basic necessities requires a good income. This, unfortunately, is the times we live in. In previous generations, we were all poor. I think on a good day, R. Aurebach had a whole boiled egg to share with his three brothers.