Ask An American: Cost of University Tuition in USA - YouTube

Hey everyone! Dana here and on today's Ask An American I'm going to be talking about

the cost of college tuition. How much does it actually cost to attend university in the

U.S.? I already made a video on what college, university and high school are, so if you

haven't watched that video, it might be helpful to watch it first, so I'll link to it down

below. Diving right into it then: Are universities in the U.S. expensive? Short answer: yes.

Long answer: eh, well, it depends on where you go to school and whether or not you have

any scholarships.

Also, don't forget that whether or not something is expensive is all relative. I mean, before

moving over here to Europe, I thought that I had gone to college pretty cheaply, or at

least for a reasonable amount. But then I moved over here and realized that in some

countries college is basically free or pretty close to it. And so, yeah, compared with free,

even the cheapest routes in the U.S. seem expensive. Although, we also can't forget

that nothing in this world is actually free. I mean, the money to pay the professors and

have that university open and pay for all those costs; that money has to come from somewhere!

And in Germany it comes from taxes, so the cost for students to go to university is spread

out amongst everyone, whereas in the U.S., it's the responsibility of the individual

person who's going to university and not everyone in the country. But anyway, back to the topic

at hand for today's video, let's start at the cheaper end of the spectrum for college

in the U.S., and then work our way up from there.

As I mentioned in the other video, community colleges are a cheaper way to do those first

2 years of university. Something to keep in mind, just like cost of living, your food,

rent, all of that stuff, the cost of tuition varies around the U.S. And so in place where

it's more expensive to live, in general, it's also going to be more expensive to go to college.

And in general, Florida is on the cheaper side of the spectrum, but even in Florida,

it's going to cost about $3000 to attend a community college full-time for one year.

And that's, full-time is 5 classes each semester. That price, of course, is for Florida residents

only. So in the U.S. you are encouraged to stay in your own state and attend university

there, not go out of state. This is also, I'm talking just about public community colleges

and public four-year universities with this. Private universities are different and we'll

talk about about that a little later.

So Florida residents would expect to pay that $3000 per year for community college. But

if you're not from Florida, so let's say you're from New York and you decide that you'd like

to move down South where it's warmer and attend college there, it's going to cost you about

three times that amount to go to college. So out-of-state people, in general, have to

pay about three times the amount that in-state residents pay.

Okay, now let's move on to a little bit more expensive: four-year universities. So I'm

talking about the undergraduate programs only. Graduate programs are going to cost more.

This is just the first four years that you go to to graduate with your bachelor's degree.

And I'm talking about public universities like University of North Carolina, University

of Florida, University of Connecticut. All these universities, by the way, are within

the top 25 best ranked public universities in the U.S. Let's look at the prices.

According to the University of Florida website, if you are a Florida resident, it costs about

$6,300 in tuition and fees. If you are a North Carolina resident, according to the University

of North Carolina website, it costs about $8,800, again for tuition and those fees.

And getting more expensive as we work our way up the U.S., according to the University

of Connecticut website, it costs about $11,200. So you can see that that is a pretty huge

range in cost. It would cost you about $25,000 to go to the University of Florida for those

4 years -- tuition and fees only -- um, whereas to go to the University of Connecticut, it's

somewhere around $44,000. I mean, that really makes an impact. That's a big difference.

But actually, it doesn't sound so expensive, when you start considering the cost of some

private universities. One year of university at Harvard, according to their website is

about $47,000, again for that tuition and fees. For four years of university that would

be about $188,000! Well when you look at that, then, the University of Connecticut and definitely

the University of Florida doesn't sound quite so expensive anymore. So like I said, it's

all relative. But, but, but, don't assume that private equals expensive. Because there

are also some private universities that cost $11,000, $13,000, $15,000 for the year, which

isn't cheap but, there are some really expensive private universities, yes, but not all private

universities are really expensive. Okay, so, quick re-cap before we move on:

staying in-state is a lot cheaper. If you go out of state, you'll have to pay generally

about three times the amount that those in-state students are paying. Also, college tuition

varies widely around the U.S. It could cost you around $6000 for the year, $8000, $11,000

and on up. And there are some very expensive private universities in the U.S., but private

doesn't necessarily equal expensive. There are also some less expensive private universities

too. And we've only been talking about the tuition and the fees. Not other expenses such

as text book, which if I remember, I think my text books cost me about $1500 per year,

so on top of the tuition. And then also, of course, cost of living, renting an apartment,

food. All of that stuff that you need just to live. So then, the big question is: how

do people in the U.S. afford to go to college? Well, a lot of people don't. Debt is a big

problem. There are a lot of people that graduate with thousands and thousands and thousands

of dollars in student loan debt. John Oliver did a really great video on this. I will link

to it down below. It's funny but really takes a good look at this topic and just picks it

apart. So definitely check that out. I'll let him explain all the details of it but

I will just say: yes, student debt is definitely a problem in the U.S. So besides taking out

massive loans, how else do people pay for college in the U.S.? Well a lot of families

start saving for the kids' college fund right when the kid is born, or sometimes even before,

when they're pregnant. Sometimes a separate bank account is set up just for the college

fund. That's it. You don't touch that money until your child goes to college, and then it's,

it's to pay for that. Often times grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends of the family will

give money toward that college fund when the child is born or when they graduate from high

school. So basically like taxes in Germany, in the U.S., everyone kind of chips in and

helps pay for it. And then there are also scholarships and grants out there that you

can apply for and hopefully get. And there are actually so many scholarships and grants

out there that I have seen, um, like little seminars or evening workshops that you can

take to learn how to find these scholarships and grants and then learn what to do in order

to better your chances of getting them. There are scholarships for playing sports. There

are scholarships for certain ethnicities. There are scholarships for certain areas of

study. Sometimes you have to write an essay for these scholarships, and then sometimes

it's just that you have to have certain grades to get the scholarship. When I was in high

school, for example, Florida had the Bright Futures Scholarship.

You had to have a certain GPA, I think it was 3.5 or higher. And you had

to get a certain score on the STAs and then you also, while you were in high school you

had to do at least 100 hours of community service. So giving back to the community.

And if you met those requirements, did those things, and applied for the scholarship, you

got a full-ride paid to any public university in Florida. And they also gave you $300 per

semester for text books. So my question for you is: how much does it

cost to go to university where you live? And what's your opinion? Do you think that the

government should pay for people to go to university or do you think that the individuals

should be responsible for their own college tuition. Or maybe it should be like a 50-50

split? What do you think? Please let me know in the comments below.

Thanks so much for watching. Please don't forget to subscribe for more videos and hit

that like button if you enjoyed watching this video. And also, for more short video clips,

photos and other information on other video projects that I'm working on, you can connect

with me over here on my Twitter and my Facebook page. Until next time, auf Wiedersehen!

Also, what other questions do you have about the U.S.? Give me more questions for my Ask

An American series. If you have one, let me know down below or on Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks! So Florida residents would expect to pay that...three thousand.

Like Germany the cost comes from...no, the, the, it's paid...

Diving right into it. Are universities in the U.S. expensive then? Short answer: no.

Ah, yes! Short answer: yes!