Free Education: America and Western Europe.

Money Grows on Trees

How America's college tuition costs, which started to rise in the 1980s, is a complex issue. I've come across many in Europe, specifically the Nordics, who boast that they have it rights: free college. Yet they can't seem to explain why it's "free." They also fail to acknowledge that despite it being "free", US higher education is, at least on the doctoral level, is seen as the epitome of research. A vast majority of the undergraduate level universities also are seen as tops when compared to their European counterparts. People flock to get into American doctoral programs which, depending on the field and ranking of the program, is funded with a living stipend. But this doctoral funding doesn't come out of the blue: many program's charge an arm and leg in their master's programs that acts as the funnel to zero tuition for doctoral students whose course of study tend to last for five years. The money has to come from somewhere. Besides, Cambridge, Oxford, UCL, St. Andrews and maybe even Trinity (Ireland) and Sorbonne (France), where do Spain, Portugal, Denmark's universities stack up against American universities for research? Not that well.

Yale
Harvard
Princeton
Cornell
UPenn
Columbia

Johns Hopkins
UChicago
Duke
Northwestern
Stanford
Notre Dame
MIT
Caltech

Berkeley
Wisconsin
Illinois
UNC-CH
Vanderbilt
Virginia
UCLA

There's probably more leading research universities I'm missing.

Americans Don't Save

One American posted a good point that public K-12 education in the US is practically free (so, yes, there is "free" education - paid for by every single taxpayer in their respective district). You only have to pay a yearly fee which isn't back breaking. With this in mind I also find that those who attended public schools throughout the K-12 levels have found themselves in insane debt just for their undergraduate degree. Unless there parents did not save the moment they were born, or at least when they turned 8 (a decade to save) or if their parents are working at poor paying jobs (less then 35K yearly) there's some serious financial irresponsibility.

If the parent makes 35K a year, starting when the child was born until he reaches the age of 17 that's 17 years of saving if that parent saves. Let's say that parent puts in 5K of that 35K yearly - that comes out to 85K once that child turns 17. Add in another parent who makes also 35K working as a waitress. That's a total of 70K yearly family income (pretax) if we don't factor in that yearly 5K savings. This second parent also adds in 5K yearly for 17 years, so that doubles that 85K to 170K. The then newborn child  later turns 17 years old and enters a Amherst College, one of the top liberal arts colleges in the States. The institutions yearly tuition for 2014/2015 was $47,720. You read that correctly; that's more than a newly minted MSW makes, about as much as a newbie finance worker from a target school (makes about 50K at E&Y as of 2016) and more than a newly hired elementary music teacher in suburban Illinois (40K). Over four years that tuition comes out to $190, 880.  That's $20, 880 in tuition debt. This isn't doesn't take into account debt for housing and food. Now, if the student was able to be accepted into Amherst I'm positive that the kid received some sort of scholarship to offset the remainder tuition debt given the family's income.

As I demonstrated there are ways to decrease debt significantly. If the student attends a state school then tuition could be even less, if not free.

But what was my experience? My father invested in a college program for our state called College Illinois for prepaid tuition. My mother was then a state hospital nurse which afforded my sibling and I half tuition off to any in-state public university. My family was middle class. I graduated debt free. I had a peer also graduate debt free because his father also invested in College Illinois.

There are ways to decrease tuition: save the moment your child is born (5K one year, 7K another, if you can afford it) and invest/or in your state pre-college tuition program if one is available. I was very fortunate that both of parents had ways to counter the sticker price of public universities. Remember: my parents still had to pay for my college, just that it wasn't near the full load and it wasn't during my time at university. It was all done before I entered.

Parents need financial literacy and need to be aware of the options that are available to them. Just like scholarships, the options are out there, it's just people don't look for them and ignorantly see that it's a no win situation. Put the hard work in now before it's too late, and if it's too late don't blame the system entirely.If you you know there's a storm coming, prepare for it the best way you can.