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The world’s most expensive universities

Complaining about high tuition fees is a favorite pastime for many foreign students, but if you’re one of those who spend time sitting around complaining that TU Delft is charging you an arm and a leg for the privilege of receiving a fine education and enduring a cold and wet climate that one former TU Delft foreign student once described as “like living inside God’s bathtub”, then a recent report by the Chronicle of Higher Education about the most expensive universities worldwide will at least leave you feeling as if the TU is only charging you a couple of your toes for a higher education.

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When it comes to the profitable business of higher education, the US is the place to be to grossly overpay for your education. The most expensive four-year university in the world is Washington D.C.’s George Washington University, where the 2007-08 tuition fee for one-year of study is $39,240 – naturally this does not include additional costs for housing, living expenses or books. And since the US prides itself on equal opportunities for all, women also have an equal opportunity to pay through the nose for their educations: Vassar College ($38,115) and Sarah Lawrence College ($38,090), both predominantly women’s universities in New York, are in the top five of most expensive universities, together with Ohio’s Kenyon College ($38,140), and Pennsylvania’s Bucknell University ($38,134).

Even pricey but academically superior institutions like Harvard and MIT, Cambridge and Oxford, don’t approach these big price tag institutions. A 2007 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office stated that “the cost of obtaining a U.S. degree is among the highest in the world and rising, which may discourage international students.” Or at least those international students who weren’t born with silver spoons or golden chopsticks in their mouths.

All this isn’t to say that private universities in Europe can’t be pricey too: the American University of Paris for example charges 23,784 euros per year for the right to study in gay Paris. While Franklin College in Switzerland rings its cash register to the tune of $30,860 per year, s.v.p. As all these big money universities prove, a key to making sure you get a good education nowadays is to first make sure that you’re born rich. (DM)

(Illustration: Juan Carlos Ortiz Nicolas, Mexico)

Complaining about high tuition fees is a favorite pastime for many foreign students, but if you’re one of those who spend time sitting around complaining that TU Delft is charging you an arm and a leg for the privilege of receiving a fine education and enduring a cold and wet climate that one former TU Delft foreign student once described as “like living inside God’s bathtub”, then a recent report by the Chronicle of Higher Education about the most expensive universities worldwide will at least leave you feeling as if the TU is only charging you a couple of your toes for a higher education.

When it comes to the profitable business of higher education, the US is the place to be to grossly overpay for your education. The most expensive four-year university in the world is Washington D.C.’s George Washington University, where the 2007-08 tuition fee for one-year of study is $39,240 – naturally this does not include additional costs for housing, living expenses or books. And since the US prides itself on equal opportunities for all, women also have an equal opportunity to pay through the nose for their educations: Vassar College ($38,115) and Sarah Lawrence College ($38,090), both predominantly women’s universities in New York, are in the top five of most expensive universities, together with Ohio’s Kenyon College ($38,140), and Pennsylvania’s Bucknell University ($38,134).

Even pricey but academically superior institutions like Harvard and MIT, Cambridge and Oxford, don’t approach these big price tag institutions. A 2007 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office stated that “the cost of obtaining a U.S. degree is among the highest in the world and rising, which may discourage international students.” Or at least those international students who weren’t born with silver spoons or golden chopsticks in their mouths.

All this isn’t to say that private universities in Europe can’t be pricey too: the American University of Paris for example charges 23,784 euros per year for the right to study in gay Paris. While Franklin College in Switzerland rings its cash register to the tune of $30,860 per year, s.v.p. As all these big money universities prove, a key to making sure you get a good education nowadays is to first make sure that you’re born rich. (DM)

(Illustration: Juan Carlos Ortiz Nicolas, Mexico)

Redacteur Redactie

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