Parents of college-bound students have been digging deep this month to pay their kids’ sky-high fall-semester tuition bills.
But a recent comparison on the news site mic.com suggests that they may be paying too much.
Even at the very highest end, tuition can be markedly lower overseas. Consider a few top schools:
Cambridge University and Oxford University
These are widely regarded as England’s most elite schools, and an obvious option for America’s top students.
Cambridge, says mic.com, “has an alumni network to rival any Ivy League school, and between the small class sizes and beautiful old town, quality of life is high.”
For a humanities degree at Cambridge, the tuition cost is about $25,600 — which is almost on a par with some state universities in America.
Oxford was tied with Harvard in the 2013-2014 Times Higher Education rankings as the world’s second-best university. Tuition for overseas students at Oxford can run as low as $24,000.
Yet Harvard’s tuition is about $39,000.
Freie Universität, Germany
This Berlin research university has a highly attractive policy on tuition: It doesn’t charge any.
Yes, there are assorted fees and “contributions,” but these amount to only about $300 a semester.
Compare that to the yearly tuition fee at Princeton (about $40,100), Yale ($45,800) or Brown ($46,400).
University of Hong Kong
HKU is sometimes called the Columbia University of Asia. It’s known for its popularity with international students.
The tuition for foreigners is about $17,400.
Columbia? About $40,200.
Yes, many US schools offer financial aid to bring down a student’s costs, including government grants.
But much of that financial “aid” now comes in the form of loans — which can grow into a daunting burden by Graduation Day.
Meanwhile, US schools typically claim they have no choice but to hike tuition and fees. But the fact is, there’s fat to be cut — particularly in administration (by far the fastest-growing area in US higher education in recent decades).
With more and more kids asking themselves if a US college degree is really worth the cost, universities would be wise to remember:
Bubbles don’t last forever — and that includes the US higher-ed bubble. If these schools don’t get a handle on their costs, the market may do it for them.