Yes, it's unfair that international students get boned by almost every step of American higher education. On the other hand, there's (still, for some reason) ma

Yes, it's unfair that international students get boned by almost every step of American higher education. On the other hand, there's (still, for some reason) massive international demand. > Schooling in america is not fucked up because it charges tuition; that's fine. It's fucked up because it charges tuition so unequally. You use "scholarships" as the example in the rest of your comment, but the dominant price difference in American tuition is probably the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition. International students (and non-residents) pay out-of-state tuition because the state is betting on its residents remaining in the state long enough to repay them in property and sales taxes. (The situation isn't nearly as sane as that, but it's approximately so.) Most scholarships are run by private groups and individuals (though sometimes administered by the university), and seem to be completely within their rights to discriminate. > I paid full $50k/yr tuition, by myself Why didn't you go somewhere cheaper? (Oh, right, supply and demand didn't stop being a thing while I wasn't looking.) > We'd all be much better off if we abolished all scholarships and dropped tuition to a price much more reasonable for everybody. School ought to cost 5-10k a year, not 50. And everybody should pay it, or take out a loan for it, because at that price, it's a no-brainer. I'm sure there are some community colleges that could survive charging $10k/year (e.g., by gutting their support staff, hiring only adjuncts, and so on) but they're not the sort of institutions that international students would want to attend.