Comment by dec0dedab0de
4 days ago
We have plenty of cheaper schools too, and they’re fine.
The expensive schools are for the richest people to say they went to school next to the best students who get in free.And for the best students to meet rich people.
Even the cheaper schools in the US (public universities) aren't all that cheap anymore. When was an undergrad in the late 1980s, I paid under $2000 a semester. Now it is close to $10000. Yes, there's been inflation since then, but not 5X (it's more like 2.5X).
The cheapest you're going to get is $10K a year (and that's hard to find), and that's just tuition. If it's not near your parents' home then you're looking at $25K/year bare minimum (as in living off ramen packs and peanut butter). So that's $100K that your parents have to have saved up (per child) or which you have to take on as debt.
Just looked up our main state schools and cost of attendance is $31K - $35K for in-state residents. So that's $120K - $140K for 4 years (not counting increases). And these aren't top-100 schools either.
It is possible to go to a top-100 school for under $5K/year tuition. Tens of thousands of people do it every year.
sure; my daughter went to a top-30 school for $0 on a full-ride scholarship
What I was talking about what you expect to pay if 1) you don't have scholarships, and 2) you're not low income enough to qualify for a lot of financial aid (Pell Grant and matching grants from state schools)