Im Italian and in my country university is almost free, like a few hundreds euros a year but only if you can afford It. But here we don’t live in dorms in the university like in the US, we either remain at our parents’ house or sometimes rent an apartment if we study far away. It’s the same thing in all european countries, like france, spain, ireland etc. From the data I read on the internet the average cost for in-state college tuition is $6,000 a year but that becomes $20,000 a year adding housing costs for dorms. So isnt It that there isnt much difference between the US and europe but It’s just about this? If you get a bed and food everyday is kinda like paying for a flat.
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Wait, it jumped from $6,000 for tuition to $20,000 for tuition + dorms? So $14,000 a year for dorms? What school are you using for this information?
I had scholarships, but my dorm was like $1,400 a semester, for the mid-tier dorm, which was very nice.
Partially. It is a very important distinction that when we talk about college costs here we generally include room and board. Most people elsewhere treat these as general living expenses and not part of the cost of getting an education.
Most cities don’t have local universities, so many don’t have the option of living at home and continuing to study.
The closest public university to me was about an hour away for example. I ended up going to a public school about 1.5 hours away which meant living in the dorms and then apartments/fraternity housing.
It’s certainly part of it. For Penn State, their site lists costs of 20k for tuition and fees, and 12k for dorms and meals. If you go to a satellite campus, tuition changes to 15k, but the housing costs stay the same.
No. The costs for residences and food is separate from tuition fees.
In-state residents often get a discounted price like your $6000 example, while out-of-state residents pay more.
[This article says tuition averages about $9000 for in-state and $26,000 for out-of-state](https://educationdata.org/average-in-state-vs-out-of-state-tuition) rates.
Housing and food is separate from those numbers, and can be expected to cost more than another [$11,000 per year](https://studentloanhero.com/featured/college-dorm-worth-it) .
In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan decided that an educated citizenry was no longer a national asset, and removed federal supports from higher education, pushing all support onto states. Greedy older taxpayers, who already had their degrees, decided that they would rather buy something with that critical money, so….the states decreased their support and colleges had to get paid somehow, so charge the student, and people make money on student loans. Which you have to start paying back DURING your attendance.
It is my opinion, as I was working in my doctorate at the time, that this assault on the financial integrity of universities was a Republican attempt to dummy down the US population to make the idiocy they get by with today be possible. I do not think that they anticipated that millenials would pursue college degrees in the face of this debt, and they will be the end of the Republicans, if they haven’t destroyed the nation before the next several elections. Millenials are now the largest voting block, they just need to understand that job one is destroying Republicans, then work on central and left issues AFTER this war is won. Stop the side battles and purity tests.
Also, the whole university experience is different in Italy and the US, even before contemporary video classes and online usage. My memory from when I visited Italy when I was college age, was that the facilities were less centralized and learning more independent and American was more I will tell you daily in class what you need to know from these books. So live here so we can see you all the time, daily.
Yes/no, it’s complicated
The really short version
The government would rather subsidize the loans than pay the schools directly and enforce cost cutting measures on them.
There’s a lot more to it, but essentially, it’s a feeding trough of corruption at the moment and everyone is lining up to rob the young people blind.
Tuition and fees are still a big part of it, particularly with out-of-state or private university costs.
It’s certainly possible that Americans are more likely to move away for college, causing us to incur additional housing costs. This may be cultural or could just be out of necessity; there are plenty of areas in the country that don’t have easy access to a university so people simply have to move to get a university education.
Partially. It costs roughly $40k US for the credits for a Bachelor’s in both the US and UK if you go to public university. We definitely have more dorm culture, and it was at least half the cost at my university (never took them up on it)
A big part of this is that a lot of the normal economic forces that keep prices reasonable are gone or severely weakened.
What particularly annoys me is the funny business this allows to happen between the textbook publishers and the universities. The price of a single textbook went from around $50 in the early 1990s to $200 on up now. Textbooks often now have a very short revision cycle, which kills the ability for student to recoup costs by selling their old books. Adding to that are shenanigans like DRMed soft-copy-only textbooks. One would think that professors who write textbooks would be rolling in the dough, but they don’t. The vast majority of book revenues go straight to the publishers.
Some schools require students to stay in dorms, usually for the first year or two. Though they don’t always tend to be more expensive than off-campus housing, it does put the prices more fixed because you have fewer options and a fixed number of room mates.
The affordable option is to go to a local community college, get an associate’s degree and transfer to a 4 year college, where you can live wherever. Some don’t want to miss out on the “college experience” this way.
There is some evidence that the government getting involved in the loan game caused a perverse incentive for universities to pass the bills onto them and increase costs. I wasn’t always sure of that, but I think it has some merit. To go back to the same university, it would cost 4x what it cost me. This is an affordable state university, I’m factoring pure tuition not the “suggested” rent or book fees in. And it’s not like I went to college in the 70s, I graduated this century.
College is expensive for many reasons, but dorms are not the primary reason, not by a long shot.
But I will admit that colleges have used renovated dorms and other amenities as tools in the recruiting arms race for chasing the wealthy out-of-state students who pay more than in-state students, and that was the primary tool by which colleges have made up for their reduced budgets. Dorms play a role in this systemic clusterfuck, but they aren’t the cause.
nope.
dorm fees are a different bill. also, you don’t have to live on campus in the dorms (mileage on this will vary, some out of states require it, weird shit honestly).
Tuition costs are high because the government gave any Tom, dick and Harry a loan. Schools saw this as an incentive to upcharge on prices.
They build luxury dorms, money pit sports program to attract new debtors for the future they can upcharge
No. Colleges are expensive because the government gives virtually unlimited loans to students and therefore the schools have no incentive to keep costs low. In fact, they gain an incentive to increase prices.
>Are dorms the reason why college is so expensive in America?
Not really. Dorms or more or less optional, but you need to live somewhere and dorms aren’t significantly more than paying to live somewhere else, if you don’t live close enough to live with your parents still.
On campus room and board are expensive (unless you are an RA), but no. It’s the facilities and “experience” that’s expensive.
Whereas universities in other countries are expected to be basically just the classes you take, in the US, each school is expected to be a unique culture and environment
No. The government guaranteeing payment for college is the reason colleges raise their rates: they get their money no matter what
No. Your college is less because it’s tuition is subsidized and if I had to guess (could be wrong here) has fewer non-professor researchers than a lot of American universities
No, the price is high because the government is pumping money into the education industry in the form of student loans. When demand increases, price increases. Student loans make it easier to go to college, allowing many more people to go than would otherwise. Thus the increase in demand.
In other words, colleges are crony organizations in which administrators farm government money by encouraging teenagers to take on thousands of dollars in debt with a vague promise of a bright career ahead.
I thought I’d point out that in the past – if you lived within driving distance or the same town/city as the university, a student WASN’T required to be in a dorm at all. I lived with my parents and drove to campus since I was a 20 min drive away.
This is all changing. Many universities are requiring every freshman to live in the dorms even if they live in the area already. There are some circumstances that allow this rule to be circumvented like you’re a married couple already or elder care, etc… There is a slow roll to make this a requirement otherwise though.
On an irrelevant note, I own 2 college dorms in the UK which are managed properties and send transfers…
But hey, the US guarantees kids loans for colleges. Colleges want to make money and charge all they can. Colleges should be financially responsible for failed and poorly guided students.
Textbook prices are even crazier.
Nah. You don’t have to live on campus. Tuition and housing are separate expenses. It was actually cheaper to live off campus for me. I was in an apartment with three other girls. I paid $187/month for rent, don’t remember electric and water (think water was included), phone bill (land line), and cable tv $10/month each. I graduated in 2000 though.
Dorms are one of the less expensive parts of college, and not always necessary.
Partially it ends up being roughly 1/3 to 1/2 depending on in state/out of state of the coat of attendance. Mostly it’s the colleges milking the fact that the government garentees the loans
College administrators are the reason tuition is so expensive. It used to be that professors would do a little administration on the side, which helped keep costs down. Now everyone has dedicated administrators who have managed to bloat the system enough that even more administrators are required.
Americans would de better if there was a culture of living at home! My daughter goes to college 30 min away and lives in her own apt (that her share of is $900 a month!)
No
No. It’s pure greed is the reason why education is so expensive
No. Room and board is like quarter to a third of the cost
Nope just greed.
College in America is expensive because the government tries to make it cheap. They guarantee everyone who is dumb enough to sign the papers endless amounts of student loans to get any mostly worthless degrees you want. The colleges know this so they raise the tuition every year because students are dumb enough to go get the loan. It’s a racket.
College football. College football is the reason college is so expensive in the US.
No, the reason college is so expensive in America is 1. A large amount of perks that colleges spend money on to attract students and 2. (More importantly) the government backs student loans, no matter what degree and no matter how much it costs so schools have no incentive to keep prices down.