For the record, I’m not American nor live in the US, but I have a 19-year-old son who started attending the University of Chicago this year, studying economics. Just the tuition itself is $70k. My husband and I are lucky enough to be able to afford it - I still believe it’s an outrageous amount of money to attend college.
Corporate greed.
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 because people realise they aren’t going to get anything useful for the time and money they put in
Public school teachers often vilified blue collar work like trades, saying things like pay attention otherwise you’ll end up as some plumber. Now the trades struggle to find good candidates partially because everyone considers them as bad jobs or “poor people jobs” despite many trades providing decent salaries and often needing a good mix of knowledge and physical skills.
I’m sure it’s not the sole factor, but universities in many other parts of the world are partially subsidised by the government.
Yeah, in our country university is free if you get high enough grades in the end of high school exams and then if you maintain high enough grades throughout university. Even if you don’t the tuition is affordable for virtually everybody. Like the equivalent of ~$1k per year for most degrees with some exceptions like medicine. A kid could make that in a month working a summer job.
Then why didn’t you send your kid to school in your country?
I’m actually from Romania, and for medicine at the most popular school in the country for it here, you’d be paying 15000 lei, or $3143 per year for the 2024-2025 school year as a local. https://umfcd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2024/TAXE_SI_TARIFE_UNIVERSITARE/Taxe UMFCD 2024-2025.pdf As an international student studying in English you’d be paying 8500€ per year.
Cause the quality is not the best, he wanted to go to the US, and we can afford it. Plus the US offers many more opportunities.
Sounds like you answered your own question there. Tuition for foreign students is expensive because the ones who come here almost always have family that can pay for it. Like I said above, no American is spending $70k per year for undergrad studies. The smart ones are going to community colleges, which are becoming free in some capacity across most states, building up a GPA, and then transferring to a University off scholarships.
I spent 7 years in school without paying anything for tuition, everything was covered by scholarships. I’ve known many people with the same experience
University of Chicago is a pretty prestigious school, too. Tuition-wise, it’s on par with Yale, Harvard, Stanford.
UIC is half of UofC. NIU and EIU are a quarter.
OP is asking why one of the most expensive universities in the country is expensive, and assuming that all universities in the US are that expensive.
That’s good. I’m glad there are ways for people to stay debt free or as debt free as possible. Since I always see student debt being a very big issue in the US in the news.
The biggest issues I think comes from the facts that A) there are a handful of very predatory schools with huge inter/national outreach programmes and B) highschool students are pressured into choosing their college path before graduating HS, when they’re still a kid.
The kids don’t know how to actually evaluate their options and end up picking the big, expensive schools just off brand recognition alone. Lots of people fell for this trap and graduated with degrees that weren’t very competitive to state degrees and cost 2-10x more.
I think the next 10 years are going to see students’ debt at graduation decrease as community college enrollment keeps going up and the stigma of “community college” education, which was a big deterrant for a long time, goes away.
My undergraduate tuition at a state public university is under 10k a year. I was severely injured in the military though, so the government pays my bill.
What you see in the news is the result of predatory practices and people not being able to use their degrees in a profitable way. There’s a lot of jokes about philosophy programs and art history degrees being a pipeline to working in fast food, because often the only way to use those degrees is to get more education (more loans) so you can teach the subject.
That, and the loan system.
its the opposite of that.
its that the unsecured ‘loans’ provided to ignorant kids for schooling are immune to be disgorged by bankruptcy. so they are abused by agencies providing the loans, and the schools who know those loans are forever financed.
its taking advantage of children, basically. but its a-ok, because profit.
Not really the opposite. We used to subsidize higher education. The non expungable debt was part of the “fix” for that issue that Reagan caused
We didn’t used to fund to the tune of $70k per student though. Something just isn’t adding up, but I have no idea what.
Bloated administration took advantage of the guaranteed federal money that was the idiotic fix for exploding college prices after the public funding stopped. Which only made prices increase more
Agreed. The only two options right now are to either do away with federally secured loans (worse option) or nationalize all universities with efficiency overwatch programs in place (better), but what we have right now is the worst of both worlds w/r/t public-private higher education
It’s an older chart but I have no reason not to think the trend it shows has reversed since 2012. Colleges pivoted really hard in the past 30 years to offering a lot more than just classes and a dorm to attract students. Non-teaching positions have more than doubled since than 70s to handle all the “bloat and bullshit” (one of my professor’s terms, a real old-school guy who hated modern academia) that that’s come along since.
Throw in the fact that federally secured loans means that almost any 18 year old can sign off on whatever the sticker price without much thought and you get those kinds of costs for some students
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.
This is the reason. Every public school, like University of Chicago, has non-resident pricing that’s typically two to four times higher than in-state resident tuition. Source: used to work at a state university.
The original idea was probably to encourage people to stay within their state and boost the state economy, but greed from the admins kinda changed the nature of things.
The University of Chicago is private. The University of Illinois Chicago is public. They have the added issue the people definitely use the names interchangeably because they don’t know there’s more than one.
When I worked at the state University, we had lists to check that stuff. Sometimes it’s obvious, other times, not so much. Good catch!
Given that state taxes heavily support higher education, it’s not the craziest idea in the world to give lower tuition to those who’ve been paying those taxes their whole lives.
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.
And if the university of Chicago is that “Chicago school of economics” then this kid is going to come out the other end repesting close to what you said, but as a positive. :(
Is that just America though? Are there other countries where profit isn’t king?
not that im aware of.
america was founded on this crazy idea of ‘rugged individualism’. that ‘socialism’ is inherently evil. its every man for themselves, and anyone not rich is so because they arent doing it correctly.
its also the reason why even a class full of dead kindergartners is ok as long as we get to keep our guns.
I’m pretty confident the French wouldn’t stand for “rule by profit”
I’m afraid I don’t have good news…
I’d put money down to Kickstart a documentary series where we fly American Redditors (and Lemm users) to Europe to film their reaction when they see that, yes, they still need to pay for items with money (and perform labor to get the money! 😱😱)
I mean, I’m aware that France has a capitalist economy. I mostly meant to say that Americans let capitalists step all over them in many ways that the French would riot over
The French aren’t the bastions maintaining rights they seem to be known as. Yes, they’ll throw a tantrum over political changes they don’t like, but late stange capitalism is still pretty bad and the average store is extremely bad for the standard competition that would favour the individual. Any mention of “I can get this cheaper at X.” is known to be followed up with “Cool. Fuck off over there then.” In as many words. Returning a faulty item will see the item getting a rigorous inspection to check that it’s still in pristine condition so it can be put back on the shelf to be sold to the next sucker (this is in the large supermarkets, not just the rare shady mom and pop stores). And electricity bills are double customer usage because the primary electricity supplier is owner by the state so they’re “legally” able to add 3 different taxes and their R&D bill to your bill. The telecoms companies do similar, partaking in that fun practice of adding nothing services to your plan you didn’t ask for and then “making things even” by raising your bill. And don’t get me started on the standard for customer support.
Consumer rights are a joke in France and for all of these death-by-a-thousand-cuts capitalist agenda BS practices, the people of France do nothing.
Gotcha, I didn’t know that. Thanks for all of the information!
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.
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.
Tuition is also higher for international students.
Honestly? Because stupid people like you keep paying it. Sounds nasty, but you are paying it, and that’s fucking stupid.
Because idiots 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.
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, Biden himself took a $250,000 bribe from MBNA to make it illegal to escape student loans even in bankruptcy.
MBNA didn’t even exist anymore in 2008. It was bought out and subsumed by Bank of America in 2006.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBNA#Mergers_and_acquisitions
If you have information on that bill/law post it. I’m curious what it actually said.
Good lord you need work on your reading comprehension, or did you just look at the headline and ignore the very first line of the article?
Hunter Biden was working and being paid as a consultant for MBNA and had no direct ties to any kind of lobbying. That’s just what consulting work is. How much was paid never gets disclosed, especially to the public.
Is there other shetchy shit? Sure, but direct bribery from MBNA isn’t one of them and now we’d have to veer off into a discussion of campaign finance and corporate contributions to politicians in a post-citizens United world.
Be accurate in your criticism or nobody will take you seriously.
I’m shocked that you’d make the typical overly generous assessment of actual bribery to excuse any and all of your team. /s
Do some more research. This is just the tip of the fucking iceberg. Biden has a long track record of quid pro quo besides this event that you clearly are purposely looking the other way on.
I could literally show you video of Biden accepting a bribe and you’d find a way to excuse it.
https://oversight.house.gov/the-bidens-influence-peddling-timeline/
https://reason.com/2023/09/18/theres-plenty-of-evidence-of-corruption-around-biden/
https://www.propublica.org/article/bidens-cozy-relations-with-bank-industry-825
https://www.congress.gov/116/meeting/house/111100/documents/HHRG-116-JU08-20201202-SD006.pdf
https://theintercept.com/2020/01/30/does-joe-biden-have-a-corruption-problem/
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/93954519
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/11/biden-bankruptcy-president/
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/24/20879735/hunter-biden-trump-corruption-outsider
Yup, you 100% need to work on reading comprehension. I never said nothing sketchy happened, actually I explicitly said other sketchy shit did and does happen, I’m saying the specific example you originally pulled did not support your argument.
The article you pulled, in the literal first sentences said that Hunter Biden was paid as a consultant by MBNA in 2005, 3 years prior to the article and that the consultancy, despite being legally above board, doesn’t look good and happened at the same time a bill favoring credit card companies was passed.
That’s not a direct bribe to Joe Biden in exchange for a favorable bill as you described it.
But instead I’m the shill for Biden because you have done a shit job defending your own point with an article that explicitly contradicts your point in the very first sentence. All I did was read the fucking article and point out it doesn’t say what you think it said.
Again be accurate in your criticism, back it up with anything that doesn’t immediately contradict your points because at this point, I highly doubt you even read a single article you posted in your last reply.
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 process know and competitive anymore.
It always goes back to Reagan…
Jesus Christ, so many people don’t know the real history of what happened while this is the real answer.
To add on to Ronald “Fucking” Reagan defunding universities, he did it because as governor of California he absolutely hated the anti-Vietnam War protests happening on University of California campuses and thought a good way to limit attendance of ‘rabble rousing’ (re: poor) students was to take away their funding. Conservatives nationwide saw this and thought ‘that’s great, we should do that, too.’ and they did.
Thanks Ronnie. You’re the unwanted microwaved dog shit that ruined America 40 years and your stink is still smelled in full force to this day. I didn’t believe in hell, but I hope they made a special one just for you.
The government also ramped up the interest rates on student loans while universities increased the price faster than inflation, I paid around 3-4% in 2008, the lowest was around 2.7% in 2020, currently they are close to 7%. The whole thing should be covered by state and federal taxes we’re already paying to subsidize them, but it just keeps getting worse to squeeze every drop of blood from people who weren’t born with a trust fund.
While true overall, University of Chicago is an elite private school with a hedge fund sized endowment with vast majority of students coming from families who pay 70k with two checks two weeks before each semester starts.
This how they stay elite.
secondary --> tertiary?
Sure, I guess post-secondary is the term usually used
Yep, this needs to be higher. Since student loans are guaranteed and pushed on all students, universities have been spending oodles of fucking money to justify higher tuition costs, which justifies bigger loans that can never be discharged. The banks win, the schools win, the student lose both academically and financially.
Public universities could actually have stricter requirements on who could go to college, because if it’s already funded by taxes, you don’t want to be throwing money away on students who will fail out of the degree path they’re trying to pursue.
Finally, two words: “Legacy Admissions”
This is the real answer I was looking for in the comments.
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.
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.
Education is paywalled
