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Comment by Goladus | Hacker News Reader

> - "College is expensive": Pretty US-centric point. It's very affordable in Canada and most other countries.

Browsing some Canadian universities, they don't seem all that much cheaper than US State Schools. They might be cheaper on average adjusted for quality, but that's a really hard thing to measure. For example SUNY Binghamton tuition and fees total $7,216 for in-state residents. That's cheaper than University of Toronto ($10,903). And many students start with 2 years of community college which is even cheaper and avoids some of the other big expenses (like room and board)

There are a lot of ridiculously expensive school in the US, but there are also a lot of schools in the US, period.

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Not to put too much weight on these University "rankings" but I would say that the two schools you cited aren't exactly comparable. The University of Toronto consistently ranks top 40 in the world. Again, not to discount other schools and what students are capable of at any institution, but "quality adjusted" I think Canada is a pretty sweet deal.

As a national student at UofT, it comes out to about $27K over 4 years. About $5K for the first year, then it goes up to about $7K once you choose your specialist or double majors. This is not taking into account any scholarships or grants (which are admittedly harder to get than in the US). International students are more expensive.

Compare this to Stanford, where your base tuition over 4 years is expected to surpass $150K.

> Compare this to Stanford

Why compare it to Stanford? Stanford is an international private university. University of Toronto is a public university, like SUNY at Binghamton. SUNY Binghamton is cheaper.

Perhaps it's a local bias, but U of T seems to be a fair bit... better... CS school than SUNY Binghamton.

(I'm a grad of another Ontario public university.)

I don't really know. I just picked it because I'm from New York and it was the first good school that popped into my head. You could compare with UC Berkeley instead, which costs about $10,000 to California residents and I hear has a pretty good CS program.

Yes, there are a lot of ridiculously expensive schools in the US, but not all schools are expensive and there are a lot of places where you can learn about computing fundamentals, algorithms, data structures, languages, operating systems, architecture, database theory and networks.

I chose UofT because that's the school I went to and I know it's in the Top 3 CS schools in Canada. I chose Stanford because that's the data I had on-hand and I know it's in the Top 3 CS schools in the US.

What I mean to say is: Compare the costs of attending the best Computer Science schools in Canada to the best Computer Science schools in the United States.

Or even compare international adjacent ranking schools. Here's a ranking list I found, you're welcome to find another: http://universityreport.net/world-university-rankings-2011-c...

It would make more sense to compare it to UC Berkeley which is tied for #1 in CS in the USA (and maybe the world?) It is about $10K a year if you're in state. Half of the 10 best CS schools in the USA are public universities and cost < $12K a year (in state.)

Fair point, thank you. I'm not familiar with tuition costs at UC Berkeley. At the same time, this points against the "College is expensive" mentality.

The college is expensive mentality is certainly real. "US-centric" just isn't an especially accurate characterization.

The mentality comes from a few places:

1. Discussion of US Private Universities like Harvard, Yale, MIT, Cornell, and Stanford, many of which have international reputations and attract students from all over the world, or the elite Liberal Arts teaching colleges like Williams, Amherst, Colby, Hamilton, and Colgate which attract the wealthiest Americans.

2. The real cost of college, in general, in terms of where the money goes (salaries, technology, infrastructure, etc.) rather than the sticker price, which may be subsidized.

3. People who rule out state schools for spurious reasons, as if failing to go to Stanford or CMU somehow means that you might as well not bother at all. (And many other reasons, high school kids are heavily marketed by universities and the kids often make the decisions themselves without thinking much about the finances.)

To be fair, Binghamton is cheaper than almost all state schools, and substantially cheaper than most if not all the Big10 schools.

> This is not taking into account any scholarships or grants

Not to mention the time-value of money.

(Sorry for the nit-picking, but in an conversation where not going to university is accepted as a valid option, I feel it's important to measure the costs correctly.)

Canadian schools are expensive, and getting more expensive FAST. I've been a student at four now, and unless you get a scholarship (only really possible at the grad level), they will put any student at least $40k in debt, unless money comes from somewhere else.

This estimate is accurate. I decided to total my tuition for a computer engineering degree at UBC (started in 2005) and it comes to $26,797 - before tax, without housing, and all other mandatory school fees included. Those who are starting now will probably pay a few more $K in the coming 4 years.

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