The United States is known as the home of many originals – baseball, McDonalds, and now, the highest college debt around the globe. Only two other places in the world even come close to the United States in terms of student debt: Japan and the UK.
Japan, however, gives out immense student aid, where the funds are contingent upon good grades. If students' grades even begin to slip, their government aid disappears.
The UK is not a system that most Europeans look up to either, and their tuition is still less than the American average. Throughout the UK, most students are eligible for student aid, as opposed to the US.
Holly Oberle, an American student studying in Berlin, states that "it is quite unfathomable for most Europeans that you would start your adult life tens of thousands of dollars in debt." For most Americans though, it's unthinkable that you would escape college without being thousands of dollars in debt.
What it all boils down to is that the American system is perpetuating outrageous university costs. Sweden, by contrast, charges nothing for college tuition. Sure, the additional costs are still there: housing, textbooks, and food, but tuition is one huge chunk of change that will still remain in your pocket in Sweden.
A possible explanation is that the United States has superior educational programs that are unparalleled across the globe. This myth, however, is disproven by the multiple universities on almost every continent that provide superior educations without the cost.
Many students elect to study abroad for a semester or two while in college, but students may not realize that their entire collegiate experience could be spent in another country at a fraction of the cost. What's more, students could fully immerse themselves in another culture that would promote tolerance, language education, and understanding of other parts of the world.
From China to the Netherlands, there are top universities in many countries around the world. The effort to travel outside of the country for college may make the lower tuition not worth it. However, it's another option for those who are fed up with the United States' systematically-imbedded tuition rates.
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-univer...
