Does any country in the world comes even close to the USA in terms of funding of top universities? (loan, school)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
But most people in the U.S. don't pay anything close to full price. Graduate programs are usually free. Undergraduate tuition can be extremely high, but only for higher income families.
I have three degrees in the U.S., and graduated with no debt. Two of the degrees were free. I only paid tuition for my undergraduate degree, which my parents helped me pay. We are a higher income household so we paid full tuition, but almost none of my friends in college paid the full tuition.
How the heck did you get your degrees for free??? I think you may be the exception as opposed to the norm. the only reason I didn't pay for my degrees is because I joined the Navy and have the GI Bill. But I"m still charged full tuition. I just have a source of income specifically to pay for that cost.
Everyone I know in my first masters program and people I have talked to thus far while applying to my second masters have all had to take out loans to pay their full rate tuition.
Now, I know there are certain career fields where the company/institution you work for will help/cover advanced degree expenses, but I feel that is still a small percentage of overall graduate students.
I'm trying to find data on the financial source for graduate degrees but haven't found what I'm looking for yet. I'll keep looking and post it when I find it. I'm curious what the actual numbers are since my experience varies so greatly from yours.
On average, for school year 2011-2012 in a public 4 year school, the out of pocket cost (after any loans, grants, student work study, parental loans, etc.) was $11,800 of the average $23,200 cost of tuition.
Regardless of who pays for it, the fact is the top tier US universities have way more money to spend than the top tier universities of any other country.
And that explains why the scientific production and technological inovation of the US is much ahead of any other country.
How the heck did you get your degrees for free??? I think you may be the exception as opposed to the norm.
I don't think I'm the exception. I don't know anyone who pays for PhD programs. My Masters and PhD were both free, as is the case with almost everyone who enters PhD programs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lapetiteruse
Everyone I know in my first masters program and people I have talked to thus far while applying to my second masters have all had to take out loans to pay their full rate tuition.
But you are probably in a technical profession. If you're getting an MBA or something, then it won't be free unless you're lower income or your company pays for it. Career-type disciplines are usually full price for those who can pay. PhD (traditionally academic track) programs are usually free. If they weren't then no one would get a PhD, because it can take like 10 years from date of bachelors. You would be paying a half million dollars or something crazy.
Western Europe is not vastly less developed than the U.S. (some would argue in terms of social equality and other factors it's more developed) and Western Europe has 100 million more people than the U.S., yet there are far fewer prestigious universities.
Outside of Oxbridge (and even there it's more a reputation issue than reality) there is no European university comparable to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Stanford, Caltech, MIT, and a few others. There are many excellent European universities but none at that level.
Well, yeah, that's kind of the whole point. U.S. universities receive the world's top students, so the % of Americans in the top technical disciplines tends to be relatively low. If U.S. students dominated the best PhD programs in the U.S. then obviously these universities wouldn't be attracting the world's best.
Imperial and UCL of London both rank well, sometimes beating one of the Oxbridges. Oxford and Cambridge have better name recognition.
Back to the OP - by and large those instutitions are private, not directly publicly funded. The way they can get Government funds is through government agency funding, such as NIH, which gives grants to researchers and that funds lab and also a big chunk of overhead going to the University. But that depends on getting the grants. Its really not equivalent to directly funded universities in other countries.
I don't think I'm the exception. I don't know anyone who pays for PhD programs. My Masters and PhD were both free, as is the case with almost everyone who enters PhD programs.
But you are probably in a technical profession. If you're getting an MBA or something, then it won't be free unless you're lower income or your company pays for it. Career-type disciplines are usually full price for those who can pay. PhD (traditionally academic track) programs are usually free. If they weren't then no one would get a PhD, because it can take like 10 years from date of bachelors. You would be paying a half million dollars or something crazy.
I know very few people who have done free Masters Programs, including myself. There are many different types of Masters Programs out there.
PhD programs are different because there are fewer spots and schools can offer scholarship money, research positions, and other economic perks to fund their studies.
Imperial and UCL of London both rank well, sometimes beating one of the Oxbridges. Oxford and Cambridge have better name recognition.
Back to the OP - by and large those instutitions are private, not directly publicly funded. The way they can get Government funds is through government agency funding, such as NIH, which gives grants to researchers and that funds lab and also a big chunk of overhead going to the University. But that depends on getting the grants. Its really not equivalent to directly funded universities in other countries.
Uhm. The British Russell Group = The US Ivy League. The UK has more high-quality university places per student than any other country on earth... it's similar to living in New England.
On top of the RG, there are special universities such as LSE. On the continent there are several prestigious universities but the names have completely vanished from my mind.
You'll be hard pushed to find British students who actively chase a university education in the United States.
Uhm. The British Russell Group = The US Ivy League. The UK has more high-quality university places per student than any other country on earth... it's similar to living in New England.
On top of the RG, there are special universities such as LSE. On the continent there are several prestigious universities but the names have completely vanished from my mind.
You'll be hard pushed to find British students who actively chase a university education in the United States.
Yep, just in the continent:
KU Leuvin
Polytechnique Paris, ENS Ulm (Paris) and Lyon, Centrale-Supelec
TU München, KIT (Karlsruhe)
Politecnico di Milano
University of Amsterdam
University of Copenhagen
KTH
ETH Zurich, EPFL (Lausanne)...
Uhm. The British Russell Group = The US Ivy League. The UK has more high-quality university places per student than any other country on earth... it's similar to living in New England.
On top of the RG, there are special universities such as LSE. On the continent there are several prestigious universities but the names have completely vanished from my mind.
You'll be hard pushed to find British students who actively chase a university education in the United States.
I don't think so. None of these institutions are comparable to the Ivy League. Even Oxbridge these days doesn't really compare in terms of funding, endowments, innovation and the like, though it does have the residual prestige.
And why would British students "actively chase a university education in the U.S."? They wouldn't qualify for aid as they aren't residents, so they would be paying vastly more than in the UK. And U.S. universities have limited spots open for foreign students, and many of those spots go to China (largely due to numbers). So it wouldn't make sense when the UK already has excellent universities.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
