Why is college tuition more expensive in the US?

  • Prestige, corruption, old boys club syndrome of organizations, EXPENSIVE RESEARCH (necessary tho), awesome labs (MIT has a straight up nuclear reactor) , state of the art infrastructure, not much government subsidy, lumbering bureaucracy, huge paychecks to high-ranking ppl, not enough AND too much optimization.


    there's too much.


    mainly prestige and not enough gov't help.

  • Well like most said, for profit focus, but like everything else, there are lot of factors. in play In terms of % of public spending, USA isn't that behind compared to UK or France. Like healthcare, how the public spending is focused on is different.


    Demand for higher education increased substantially over the years. To justify these increased in costs, colleges may invest in other services and having less students per professors. Also, financial aid is more available. There is no price control I think, so sky is the limit. I believe some developed countries have price regulations in place and may focus on other options than college/university to offset the demand a bit which helps with increased demand.


    Compensation for executive staff has been higher and higher, so I imagine this also is part of the problem. Costs for faculty increased a lot too, but we see colleges using part-timers more and more instead to avoid paying extra costs.


    It's basically a self-feeding system.


    International demand may be a factor. However, because they pay more, they actually may help subsidize costs at some point. Because of covid and other factors, international demand dropped drastically, so someone has to pick up the tab for lower profits. It's not like USA is getting all the international students lately, other places have spikes in international demand and also aiming for these higher paying students. Lot of colleges in emerging countries are starting to climb the top list and offering more and more attractive options to them. Dunno how this will play out in the future, but I imagine it's not good for college costs for domestic students.


    People feel it is like a scam because salaries have been basically frozen over the years while college costs (or basically everything like healthcare, housing, and so on) increased substantially, so maybe demand may decrease over the years as cost benefit are looking bad for future students. Not sure if they will self-correct with current system. In theory with lowered demand, prices should go down (with cost cuts that may affect quality in some aspects of college life).


    I'm not familiar with Western Europe system to make a comparison, so I imagine they take it as an investment for the future instead of benefiting private nonprofit and for profit institutions instead of students. I imagine not all can get into these free options, but these students have other options depending on the country and maybe they are less pressured to get a college degree as well.


    There is pros and cons of each system, but at the moment the cons in the American system are getting out of hand.

  • Minkah what is it like in Germany?


    Can all university/college students gets very low or free tuition ?

  • Prestige, corruption, old boys club syndrome of organizations, EXPENSIVE RESEARCH (necessary tho), awesome labs (MIT has a straight up nuclear reactor) , state of the art infrastructure, not much government subsidy, lumbering bureaucracy, huge paychecks to high-ranking ppl, not enough AND too much optimization.


    there's too much.


    mainly prestige and not enough gov't help.

    Does state college /university subsidy fall under state or federal government authority?


    Any ball park annual state budget percentage spent on helping college/ university ..figure this varied by state?


    Minkah how is government subsidy on uni/ college working in Germany? What percentage of your annual state / federal budget is spent on helping college/uni ?

  • Minkah what is it like in Germany?

    We have public and private universities.

    Public universities are state funded, so there are no tuition-fees.

    I studied at a public university myself and all I needed to pay was my semester contribution of ~€300 which felt like a lot at the time, but obviously isn't. This contribution included various administrative costs, as well as a public transport ticket that allowed me to use all public transport free of further charge.


    However, depending on where in Germany you decide to study you might be asked to pay a tuition-fee retroactively, if you opt not to complete your degree as intended.


    Generally speaking, tuition-fees can range from €0 to €20.000+ (or so I've heard about Heidelberg University), but in most cases there is no tuition-fee, because the goal is to allow everyone to get a good education, regardless of their family's financial situation.


    The biggest challenge is usually accommodation/living expenses. Rent in particular tends to be expensive so I shared a small flat with 4 other students.

  • Greed, they have found the sky is the limit. Money flows from Public Taxes(Bonds), State Budget, Tuition, Alumni, Corporations and Student Loans.

    Tuition increases multiple times a year. Predatory Student loans give Universities a Blank Check. Their like a Jabba the Hutt. Xd


    Near by is University of California Berkeley and Stanford University. They command premium tuition and high standard of admissions. Smart & hemorrhaging money. XD

    Interesting benefit is Community Colleges near them are like their prep schools. Higher level of instruction so credits are transferable.

    Popular Universities Tuition are higher than academically equivalent less popular ones. Also Status symbol Universalizes means higher tuition.


    It is Greed of Faculty, Administrators, Regents, Unions and Communities. At the expense of Students and tax payers.

  • Would rankings between US state universities come off different tuition?


    5/ 10K is like for a whole school year excluded dorms ?

    Right, that only includes tuition, and not dorms, books, etc.


    I'm only familiar with California as many of my relatives live there. State universities there are more difficult to get into than private ones. Though that's not always the case as private Ivy league universities are difficult to get into as well.

  • Any ball park annual state budget percentage spent on helping college/ university ..figure this varied by state?

    eh about 5 - 15 % of the state budget (depending by state) goes to actually funding the damned thing but then like the students gotta heave the rest and its expensive. I got $5k bill for the fall quarter and that's for three quarters so about %15k/yr/person. (this is UCI, btw)

  • These schools charging 250k to students (kids really) for something like a History degree is criminal.


    You have to be stupid to even go to a private liberal arts college for a degree that really has no job opportunities then complain about how much your degree costs.


    There are plenty of affordable public state and community colleges available, but many students seem to want to go to private/semi-private universities for their prestige.


    Fact is unless you go to an Ivy League or a top tier university in the US, employers are not going to care where you graduated from.

    Vachirawit “Bright” Chivaaree can get it every day all day all week every month all year for a lifetime.

    4ca3c94a140c38326868f624c2d5d1b062af8138.gifv


Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!