Education in the USA (or anywhere in the world)

I am curious because I hear different things about how your education system works, and particularly how much it costs.

I'd just like someone to tell me a typical ''school career'' (I don't have a better expression sorry). What I mean is at what age you go to what school and what is the price.

The reason is that I hear that going to college or university is extremely expensive and that making this choice means that either the parents of the students are rich (or at least very wealthy) or that the student will have huge amount of debts. And I was wondering if this was a myth, that it isn't really true, that there are a lot of scholarships, etc.

Also, I'd like to know if a scholarship is something that most students can have or just very elite students. In other words, do a kid with parents in the middle class who isn't excellent nor bad at school and wants to pursue an academic career can do it without seriously indebting himself.

To give you an exemple, here in Quebec school is free from primary school to secondary school (from 5 to 17 years old) then there is cegep which is something before the university. The students who want to go to university goes there for 2 years to have classes in a subject that interest them (From what I know I think it might be like college). There is also what we call ''techniques'' which are 3 years programs that afterward the students can directly go work. Things like ceing a cop, a firefighter, an electrician, etc. The advantage of cegep is that it costs merely nothing, like 200 to 400$ per session + the books, so everyone can go there. Then university which is a little more expansive, but nothing huge it costs exactly 1666,66$ per session (at least for me I don't know if it's necessarily the same for every programs) + the books. So nothing to really keep anyone from studying.

I tend to be really favorable to the way the school system is here, but I don't want to pass judgment without knowing how americans that went through the system feel about it. Is it fair? Do everyone who wants to study can do it? If someone wants to study something like philosophy or litterature is it a professionnal suicide?, etc. (To be fair we do pay more taxes so I don't pass judgment I just want to hear your experiences about it)

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I do not speak english perfectly so expect some mistakes here and there in my messages

In the UK, you go to primary school from ages 4-11 and it's free, the meals are even free in some places if I remember right, as part of a trial.

Then you go to secondary school until you're 16, which is free again. However, you have to stay in education until you're 17 here (soon to be 18 if it isn't already), but, most colleges are free to attend and if you get an apprenticeship, you actually get paid. Some instead stay in "mainstream" education and go to sixth form (16-18) which generates the most university applicants.
Schools like to rake in money from ridiculous prices for uniforms here though, they often demand that you can buy blazers and ties etc. From certain shops that often charge extortionate prices.

Uni is £9,000 a year here, although it is different in Wales and Scotland too (I.e. It's a lot cheaper).
I'm applying for unis this year actually, and the prices influence a lot more people than I expected. A lot of people want to go to a local uni to save on expenses or they don't want to go at all because they don't want to be in so much debt when they leave. Yet the government still want to raise tuition fees despite how England is by far the most expensive country to study in within Europe at uni level.

Over here, it's generally considered a waste of time to study psychology and media studies, because they're always so popular, yet there aren't too many jobs in those fields really.

In Alberta, we pay for school from Kindergarten all the way to post secondary. And in my experience, most people who I knew that went to post secondary did so at their own (astronomical) expense. These are people went to a university and people that went to a polytechnic institute. I have a cousin who went to school to become a teacher, and after years he told us he was paying off his student loans, for almost 15 years after the fact. I can't speak personally, as I ended up going to work right out of high school for a company that does infrastructure work. Basically in Canada, as long as you're Quebecois or status Indian you have access to cheap/free education. Everyone else in Canada pays out the ass, and it's not fair.

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Cici, thanks!

ATC, To be fair, in Quebec we do pay a lot more tax then Alberta and that education is a provincial duty not a federal one so blame your prime ministe for the education system not the québécois hahaha.

I just updated it again, I forgot a few things

Lol, I'm a Libertarian not a Liberal

I know you guys pay more tax, I'm just mad you guys get to buy beer in 7-11's and have Just For Laughs: gags filmed in Montreal/QC.

Personally, I would have liked to have gone to school, but due to monetary restrictions and not wanting to be in debt for a decade, doing what I did was more practical for me. I feel like I might have been ahead of the curve, because I was making money and didn't have to worry about paying anything except my personal expenses, and ended up saving up a decent chunk of change.

By prime minister I meant the one of Alberta (I'm not saying that it's the current PM that chose how the school system is, but it would be his jo to modify it. Your exemple is exactly what pisses me off, everyone who wants to go to school should be able to do so.

I have about $30,000 in debt from college. And I worked full time … it was really tough and yeah it's expensive. Private colleges are insane. I went to public college so it wasn't as bad.

What is college? Is it university or before university? What is the difference between the 2?

As far as elementary, middle and high school,I didnt have to pay for my daughter or son. I pay what is called "Personal Property Tax" on my home and vehicle which a percentage went to the school district to pay for teachers. My sister, who lives in another state but only 15 minutes from me, had to pay for her boys to go to elementary school, middle and high school. Its because she's in a different state/city, of course.

I know my daughter went to a community college here in the US. I paid out of pocket for her classes and books. I would say on average depending on the course, it was around $150 to $250 a class. Plus we had to pay for her text books and/or any other thing she needed for class, ie. protective goggles for chemistry/organic chemistry. The thing that helped us most is that, my state offers a college savings plan, where you invest money to put toward secondary education needs being college or university. If she would have went to the university, it would have been higher for classes and books. If she went out of state, it would have been even higher. My daughter holds an "Associates" degree in Biology. At university, she would have gotten a Bachelor's as the lowest.

I went to a technical or trade college on a student loan. For 18 months, it cost $20,000 at least and Im still paying that back and never did finish. Because the money is paid up front to the college, if you finish or not, you still owe on the loan.

In France, elementary, middle and high school are free (except the books, the school material of course) and a year at the University is free but you have to pay the tuition fees which costs around 200€ (and the mutual insurance, around 200€ for the year). We can think this is a fair system but it's not completely true.
The private schools are expensive (but their diplomas are not recognised).

I've seen the other day one of my friend from the high school who is American and he's living in Texas. His husband has $60,000 in debts. When he was in France, he thought "France sucks, America is the best" and now it's the contrary but I think when he will be back in France, he will be disappointed (each country has advantages and disadvantages). In USA, you have a lot of debts but I suppose it's more easy to find a job. His boyfriend would like to open a clinic specialized in music therapy in France but he doesn't know that it's very very hard to start a business here, the administration is such a mess here (and the French medicine is pretty hostile with these new therapies...)

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Unless you want to attend a private school/uni it's all free in Poland (except for paying for books etc.).

There are so many silly terms for school periods. I was last generation of "old system of education" in Montenegro. I had 2 school periods, one that starts at age of 7 and lasts for 8 years and once you finish that you go to 4 more years of more specific education of your choice. And after that its college. Now days kids must go to pre-school, start school at 6, go for 9 years and at the end do a test in order to be able to go to final 4 years. And I'm very happy this new system didn't get me, it sucks.

Everything before college is free, you just have to get the books and school material.

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“By definition, you have to live until you die. Better to make that life as complete and enjoyable an experience as possible, in case death is shite, which I suspect it will be.”

Technically, there are different definitions based on what kinds of programs they offer, but most of the time in casual conversation if you hear someone reference "college" they're talking about the same kind of higher education you mean when you say "university."

Re: scholarships. There are lots of them. Most are not for the full cost, but there are lots of smaller ones to help offset the cost.

And yes, college is becoming obscenely expensive, in part because of (not in spite of) our subsidization of it.

I owe $50,000 to the University of Michigan and I didn't finish - I was more interesting in learning. I've been meaning to send in a "Hardship Form" to delay payments, though I'll never pay them anyway.

I live in the US. Cegep sounds like Community College. They are publicly-funded and offer 2-year Associates Degrees. I'm not sure what the cost is but they're comparatively cheap and the people who go to them tend to already live near the College and have been out of school for a long time or are preparing to pursue a Bachelors (4-year) Degree. What many countries call "University" we just call "College", and that's where people go for the 4-year degree mentioned above. The people who go there ("undergraduates") usually are coming straight from High School but there are some older ("continuing education") people and there are some who went to Community College in between as well. You can get a Bachelors at a University or a Liberal Arts College; the main difference is that on top of teaching undergrads, the faculty at Universities are usually there to produce research and teach graduate students as well as undergraduates. In that respect even though the degrees they offer to undergrads are the same, Universities can do more to prepare them for graduate school (this tends to be more true the more elite the University is). But whether you go to an elite research University or a small 4-year College in the U.S., you still just say "I'm in college" when asked what you "do."

As for the cost, it varies across institutions and is generally increasing. I went to a small Liberal Arts College in the early 2000s which cost around $5-6000/year. My wife went to an elite university that cost twice that. My sister went to an elite women's college in the mid-late 2000s that cost more still and my brother went to a large state University that cost about as much as My wife's undergrad education had a decade before. There are scholarships but competition is pretty tight. My brother had one in his final year after he had brought himself up to a B+ average. My wife had one throughout because she scored high on an optional test she took in high school. My mother went back and finished her Bachelors in her early 40s and she got some scholarships that were reserved for continuing-ed students with high grades. None of these scholarships I mentioned payed the entire tuition. When I was in school there was also some financial aid for people whose parents were in a lower income bracket, but I'm not sure if that's still widely available. There's also the increasing interest rates on student loans to consider. The loans I took out in the early-2000s had an interest rate between 1 and 2 percent, whereas the ones my brother had I think were over 6. On the other hand, some (elite) schools are very generous. My ex went to one that was free if you got in (they've since had to start charging, due to the recession or to financial mismanagement, depending on who you ask). The university I work at is basically free to students if you get in and can't afford to pay without taking a loan. Nobody here has to go into debt. They can afford to be more generous than most schools because they have a large endowment from their alumni, and because they spend hundreds of millions of dollars per year on portfolio management and get about 3 times the average return on their investments.

Education in the U.S.? That's just an urban legend. It doesn't really exist.

@Palsy you seem to know alot about this so maybe you can answer something for me. I never used the programs but I know in both GA and FL they have programs if you keep a B average and go to a state school. In GA these grants appear to pay for almost all of an undergrad program if you maintain those requirements. Are these programs not pretty widespread? Are they not paying for as much education as they appear to be? The reason I ask is these programs are almost never brought up when there is debate around the price of education in this country. These programs seem great to me and will be something I will be pushing on my children when they reach High School age but I wonder if I am being mislead in what they provide.

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Letterboxd

Most of my knowledge is anecdotal or from tangential sources, I haven't read much on financing college specifically. I do know that state schools are more affordable for in-state students than for out-of-state students, because of both lower tuition and scholarships that are available exclusively to in-states, but I imagine just how affordable and how much assistance is available varies from state to state and even college to college. What you describe does indeed sound like a good deal though. I've noticed that in NJ Rutgers (where my brother went) has been tacking on other fees besides tuition, including fees that didn't exist when I was in school. But since tuition is still by far the largest expense any scholarship program that covers most of that sounds like a good deal. Also keep in mind that the cost of state schools can vary quite a bit. The small liberal arts college I went to was comparatively cheap whereas Rutgers is pretty expensive.

Each state in the US has a college savings program to help pay to tuition and fees as well as books and boarding if needed. The great thing is that parents can start investing before the child is born. What you do is invest under your own name and once the child is born and has a social security number is transfer the funds to an account in the child's name. To start investing, some of the plans allow as little as $25 to start. Each plan has several investment options, some are based on the aggressiveness of the child's age and some are more stable. Each state has a company that manages the portfolios. I know about this as I used to work for a company that did the investing for the majority of the states. Below are a few of the states link

https://www.njbest.com/

https://www.most529advisor.com/

https://www.scholarshare.com/