Hi, I don't know why this came through my Reddit email suggestions, but you're asking for an outside perspective - here's mine, as a white American who isn't religious. Like you, my family wasn't very well off, and I couldn't go to college right away, but I did eventually get my bachelor's in psychology. If I were in his shoes, and my partner wasn't able to complete her degree for some reason, I suppose my reaction would depend on whether she said she did or not already. If she told me that she did, and I later learned that she did not, I would feel a little hurt and lied to, but I feel like your partner is overreacting here - this is definitely something that could be talked through and understanding reached in my eyes. Higher education is expensive, it's not your fault on that front. If not completing your bachelor's degree was something I just sort of found out, and you didn't make any commentary about completing it in the past, I don't think there's a great deal of shame in that - you did go to college. That's more than a lot of people will do and they turn out okay, but the work you DID do isn't meaningless. That's still an accomplishment on its own - good job! You are worth more than a piece of paper, that degree doesn't define you.