Quote:
Originally Posted by nik-
It's not the bolded. It's definitely the "in Ontario". The highest tuition I could find in Ontario was $11000 a year, but on average it seems to cap out around $7000. Average in the US in state public school is $20k a year. Private is over $40k.
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Average public in state tuition is $9970 in the US. The 20k you are saying is a total cost including room and board.
https://www.valuepenguin.com/student...ost-of-college
I don't know about other states, but the public community colleges in VA are run quite well and provide a very good option for the first 2 years for about $3000/year and kids can usually continue to live at home as most cities and suburbs have a community college.
There are far more grants and needs based scholarships than Canada has as well.
I don't think the difference is nearly as large between Canada and the US in this area as others make it out to be. One of the larger factors is that more people have to pay for housing as a lot of University's of choice are in small college towns. But I question whether going to those schools really provides that much better of an education (especially for the first couple years) than in town options and are more about parents being able to boast on Facebook.
Some tweaks to the current system to make it more affordable would be good. I know the financial assistance is a nightmare to navigate through, and it doesn't always seem fair to tie aid to parent's income as some parents don't pay for their kid's college and are under no obligation to do so. Also in many divorced and re-married families, it might disqualify kids because of a step parent or birth parent that may not have much to do with that kid.
As far as free for everyone, I really don't like that idea at all. There are plenty of ways to become worldly without going to college if that isn't your thing. Some of the more interesting people I know skipped college to live abroad and then came home and started successful businesses. I know many successful people in the tech sector who skipped out on college to learn their craft in other means. And plenty of people would be much happier and more successful to invest in learning a trade. There is a huge range in what people get out of their college experience. I don't know that getting drunk for 4 years, hanging out at frat parties and scraping your way through classes you hate is the most beneficial way to spend public money in some cases.