Education has quite opaque pricing which makes comparison difficult.<p>For example, my undergraduate Alma Mater, a New York State University, charges 7K per year in-state, 25K out-of-state. Which one of those is factored into the average cited here?<p>Furthermore, what percentage of students actually pay this tuition? Poor students get financial aid from the government and the university, good students get academic scholarships - all the way up to a free ride. Are those discounts reflected in the averages?<p>And, direct tuition is not the full story of the cost of education. For example, while it looks like a NY student can get a good deal on State education, it's possible that their family's life-time tax bill to support education far exceeds the savings. Likewise, if German tuition seems cheap - where is the money coming from? Germans must be paying for it in some other way.<p>The thing that matters the most is: how affordable is a college education to someone. Let's say I am a New York resident with good grades and I can get a half-ride tuition (3.5K/year) at a very good State School, the fact that I could also go to NYU (50k/year) or Columbia (61k/year) is irrelevant to my affordability. If I chose to go in to 240K debt to go to Columbia, that's my choice and my problem I could have gone to Stony Brook and pay 14K for 4 years for a solid education.<p>And finally, there's the elephant in the room that not all degrees are the same, but somehow they cost the same. If I get a highly relevant degree (let's say, Engineering) then even the 240K student debt can be easily paid off in a few years of full time work, and launch me into a great career (though, the Stony Brook degree would too.) On the other hand, the fact that Columbia would likewise happily bill you 240K for a soft-degree that will never lead to a good job is a fricking crime.