While *some* debt is typical, I don't believe THAT level is typical (for undergrad tuition).
She might have gone to a for-profit school; most of those have predatory recruitment / lending practices, and shutting them down should be a cornerstone of real education policy, as their students make up a very large percentage of those in trouble over student loan debts.
Graduate education in STEM is usually free in exchange for being a teaching or research ass't, and doctoral work in most other areas is similar.
Medical and law school debt could run that high, and my understanding is that there is no financial aid for law school. Business school is likely the same.
(Note that the master's degrees in business, law, divinity, social work, engineering, fine arts are essentially terminal vocational degrees; people going further will likely be professors or researchers. Also, universities provide a teaching certification which is sort of a master's degree and a money-maker; any support for that likely varies with the need for new teachers.)
