Why are American universities so expensive?

Majority of everything in the usa feels like a grift now.

Profit/stockholders > people.

I have clients that move to the USA from overseas that see the USA as "safe".

Unfortunately I have to warn them against getting scammed left and right since it happens to everyone.

The system is really bad but you should also factor in the price while searching for schools, I went to a state University, one of the minor ones, and tuition was under 10k/year. So your son paid more for 1 year than I did for my entire degree by almost a factor of 2. Some universities are way more expensive than others. I got a STEM degree and was employed 2 months after I graduated, with a very prestigious research position. So it's not like going to a shitter on paper school had an impact on me personally.

they didn't used to be

Because everybody believes their bullshit snake oil.

Gotta make indentured servants somehow.

There was a recent post on !AskUSA@discuss.online (https://lemmy.world/post/23087700), feel free to crosspost there too

I mean if you can afford a 70k/tuition you probably already know how economics works...

Let me ask, why are you sending your child to that expensive college and not a local community college?

Most community colleges are very affordable, if not free with financial aid. At many state universities, many students who are low income can qualify for free tuition.

Because THOSE schools are expensive.

- IN STATE VS OUT OF STATE -

I went to a SUNY (State university) about 18 yrs ago and it was $3,000/semester. Today it’s $3,500/semester, so it didn’t go up by much. I stayed in state so it was lower for me. If you are not from the state it was $10,000/ semester (still on the lower end). Compare that to other people in other schools taking the same major as me. It was about 20,000/ semester for in state. We all ended up at the same jobs, I just didn’t carry the debt.

For the US, staying in state helps a lot. Unfortunately I think the grand idea of moving away and dorming is pushed onto kids by the media. Another comparison, my wife, who also went to school in the same state as me, went to at a CUNY (City University) and it was $1,800/semester. It was a pretty great school and campus, but not a school you’d see in the movies or tv shows. We both chose to stay within our means and not put a burden on ourselves or our families. Today we are very successful with no debt.

- SCHOOLS AS BRAND -

One more thing that drives price, is that schools are also brands now, and you are paying for that. There is peer pressure to get into schools with better awareness. Same reason a kid would rather wear apparel from nike vs walmart. My niece just started college this year and was brainwashed into picking a school she couldn’t afford. They took out a loan and the school end up being horrible for her. She dropped out during the last semester and I was told all the money spent this year was a wash. She’s now going to end up going to the school her family originally recommended to her. There are plenty of schools in the states that are good and wont cost an arm and a leg.

- CLASS FLUFF -

For the sake of keeping kids in school they pack in so many additional unneeded electives. I think I had to take 11 within my first 2yrs and each of my classes was 3hrs long. Some days I would have 9hrs of class. That is not including the down time in between those clases, so I could be there around 11-12hrs on a single day. If you want to keep a part time job to help pay for college, then that may mean you have to take additional winter and summer classes. In a lot of places this isn’t covered during the regular months so you have to pay for more. This fluff is one of the ways they keep bachelors and masters programs to run for as long as they do and at the prices they do. Some of these schools do run expedited programs where if you have previous electives that transfer over, you can do your degree in half of the time.

Same reason everything in the US is expensive: we have largely unregulated, runaway capitalism which pervades every facet of life. Everything from housing to academia to health care is for profit -- not only profit, but for obscene year-over-year increases in profit. Those at the top regularly make money hand over fist even selling basic necessities, and if they don't continue taking more and more, they're seen as failures and replaced by one who will.

The cherry on top is that, for the most parts, the citizens no longer have any real power to change any of it.

Around the same time that health care becomes affordable in the US (major hypothetical, of course), it probably means a wind change has occurred such that university costs would also be coming down. But it would be a systematic change.

because america is the land of profit over humans. its just that simple.

its ingrained in the entire country. if some rando at the top isnt profiting, it must be killed. its the problem with healthcare. its the problem with government (congress). its the reason we are entrenched in a 2-party hellscape.

This is a private school so they don't get much in the way of direct government funding. State-funded schools are considerably cheaper. I went to Wright State University in Ohio. Right now it's about $13k/yr in tuition. This is still rather expensive on a global scale.

Why do private schools charge that much? Because people (like you) will pay that much. What about the University of Chicago makes it so that you are willing pay for it? What do you or your son hope to get out of it that a school in your home country (I'm assuming Canada) can't give him? To compare to Wright State, even for out-of-country students the tuition is less than half of Chicago's tuition. Is the benefit of going to Chicago worth that much more? If it is, then that is exactly what you're paying for.

Because Reagan defunded public secondary education. And then instead of fixing that in the late 90s/early 00s, they made school loans non expungable and federally guaranteed, so schools didn't need to keep their prices low and competitive anymore.

It always goes back to Reagan...

side effects of Boomer economic policies and their ignorance regarding the changes they caused

Because people are still paying it. That's how you set the price of things. If people are paying 70k why would you sell it cheaper?

learning is just a sidehustle to the sports franchise they run?

US universities engage in price discrimination between different students.

For public schools, there is different tuition between in state and out of state students. There are also some state government programs based on merit and financial considerations.

For well endowed private schools, the universities will provide scholarships based on a variety of reasons. For students from rich families, those families are generally paying full price and there generally is the implication of additional donations.

My parents paid for me to attend a private university in the late 80's, for which I'm both extremely fortunate and grateful.

I wanted to do the same for my children, but there was no way. I pay half, my parents pay half, and my kids have very small loans.

I was experiencing significant disappointment that I wasn't able to pay for my kids' education the way my parents paid for mine.

At one point I used an inflation calculator to get an idea of how much my education cost in today's dollars, and it turns out that when it's corrected for inflation, I'm paying what my parents paid. My kids' education is more than twice as expensive as mine was if you correct for inflation.

Tuition is also higher for international students.

All the schools rip off the rich to subsidize the middle class. You're essentially subsidizing a bunch of students who are paying close to nothing.m, because you can afford $70k tuition.

As another example, Harvard is free for anyone whose family makes less than $85k per year. Not just the tuition ($56k per year), but also the housing (worth $13k), food ($8k), health insurance ($1600), books, and a modest living stipend designed to cover things like a computer, commuting/travel, other expenses.

And those who make up to $150k per year are capped at 10% of their income to pay for all that. In the end, the average cost of Harvard for the typical student is about $15,000 per year including housing and food.

In other words, attending Harvard is cheaper than not attending school for anyone whose families make less than $150k, which is basically 75% of the nation. So if you're actually paying full tuition, you're probably pretty rich.

Because there's nothing more American than getting ripped off.

The politicians of the US took massive payouts from the banking industry in exchange for commodifying anything and everything that people need. Back in 2008 2005, Biden himself took a $250,000 bribe from MBNA to make it illegal to escape student loans even in bankruptcy.

Corporate greed.

Administrative bloat. At my university, if my lab lands a grant, 60% goes to the university and only 40% is used for actual research. There's a long chain of people whose jobs are to answer emails, and they all need to be paid.

Depends on the school but yes it's ridiculous. For a while it seemed like everyone was encouraged to attend college but now it seems like trade schools are coming back in a big way. I think people realise they aren't going to get anything useful for the time and money they put in for the jobs they want

Higher Ed is just another broken cog in the American machine. I'm lucky to live in a state that recently made Community College free for state residents that don't already have a college degree.

I'm seriously considering finding a nursing program. I've already been in the medical field for 38 years.

I'm sure it's not the sole factor, but universities in many other parts of the world are partially subsidised by the government.

A lot of folks are overlooking one of the largest factors, unlimited student loans for whatever.

As long as people have access to an ever increasing amount of money to use for tuition, it is in those institutions' interests to rise their prices to extract as much as possible.

Whereas other countries tend to subsidize their education at source, that is to say, by funding the schools directly which somehwat obviates the price gouging aspect.

Because it's worth it!

lol jk

Honestly? Because stupid people like you keep paying it. Sounds nasty, but you are paying it, and that's fucking stupid.

If we can reason and communicate effectively then we're much harder to exploit.

Education is priced above the balance of supply and demand because in wider scope it's more profitable to deny access.

Denial of access to education is a very good way to leave many people with violence as their only practical means of change.

Student loans have dulled price-point as a major consideration for choosing a school. So they compete on other non-academic stuff that tends to raise the tuition like sports, amenities, and prestige.

There's probably more at play, but the govt is willing to back companies offering loans to cover higher and higher tuition costs, so said companies haven't got to worry if the loans default or don't return the full amount - it's about setting an exorbitant "graduate tax" to keep a permanent stream of guaranteed income for as long as possible.

Higher loans means more repayments, and more money for universities, so they both raise tuition higher and higher to meet the limits of students. as long as banks or govt don't ever ask for their loans back (which they won't because it'll collapse the whole system and possibly the economy with it) the price can inflate at much at it likes.

the same is at play in the UK, only we have "tuition caps" that every university course sets their prices to because there is simply no benefit to charging less, and no downside to charging more. Everyone can get a loan, no one is denied, and the government backs this process because it is essentially being held at ransom.

I know I turned it into a rant about UK education but the financial systems feel very similar. There's simply too much money held up in a make believe cycle of IOUs that would immediately collapse a huge chunk of the American system if anyone willingly let it pop.

The only problem with this is that eventually it might just pop on its own, and no one will be ready.

Capitalism.

Capitalism took root in the early American colonies through European mercantile practices, private land ownership, and the growth of family-owned farms and small businesses. By the 18th century, the transatlantic trade, including the slave-based plantation economy in the South and a diversified market economy in the North, fostered a system increasingly dependent on private profit. After independence, policies favoring property rights, limited government interference, and expanding markets reinforced a capitalist framework. By the mid-19th century, industrialization, the rise of factories, and expanding transportation networks fully cemented capitalism as the dominant American economic model. In my view, it thrived primarily because it aligned with the nation’s emphasis on individual opportunity and entrepreneurial initiative.

Without regulation, it allowed the most selfish people to rise to the top. Most Americans can't imagine that their leaders are so cruel. They think "everyone is just exaggerating when they say the wealthy elites don't care about us. no one is so callous!" The truth is so much worse than they imagine. Our elites are monsters. They're using tactics that would make Hitler blanch.

Education is one of the social practices they have privatized. The elites don't want us to be educated. They want us angry, stupid and powerless. So they've used propaganda and every tool at their disposal to turn our education system into a scam, a sad parody of an effective instruction method. It's expensive garbage, and that's exactly what the elites want.

Nobody knows. Serious, there are a lot of factors people will point to in here. Some of them are real factors, but every time I dig in I discovered that they do not explain everything. Prices have gone up much faster than inflation for decades even after accounting for government subsidies.

Same reason the adjuster fixed a CEO.

Huge corruption and collusion between state and schools for the benefit of the owner class.

Education is paywalled

Generally students will get financial aid and scholarships that cover much of the cost of tuition, especially if they're from a lower income family. I'm guessing that, as an international student from a wealthier family, your son didn't quality for much aid. Tuition is also generally lower for residents of the state, which he also wouldn't qualify as.

Even with all that it's still incredibly expensive and lots of people end up having to take out large loans or work jobs while in college to cover the cost.

Profits.

It used to still be a worthwhile investment though. These days... it can be, but it's not guaranteed. You also can learn most things online for free, so what is it even getting for you, really?

Connections.

But that only if you are willing to push for them, and so many kids are only there purely bc their parents send them, like an extended daycare or continuation of high school. I'm not saying it's not worthwhile, but it requires a VERY serious commitment, and so many people are not willing to live up to that.

See also the recent discussion in !AskUSA@discuss.online Is college in the USA worth the financial investment?

Because people keep paying for it. There are so many options for low/no cost education in America but people keep flocking to the same dozen schools for "the prestige" dispite the quality of undergrad education being comparable if not worse than state universities or community colleges.

To ensure a large supply of low wage labor.

Greed. Come on were you really expecting a different response?

Profit and greed. That’s it.

They charge that much because they can, and what are you gonna do about it? Not go to college? Good luck getting a job flipping burgers without a bachelors degree.