How do Americans afford to go to uni?

[Snickersnack1]

I’ve just been reading this: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/advice/finding-your-university-uk-versus-us

It says:

Students apply to 6-8 colleges, with each application costing up to $75. So you could easily be looking at $400+ in fees just to apply.

Their college courses last 4 years, and can cost over $30,000 per year!! And there is no student finance, they have to organise their own loans, so with interest rates etc.

HOW is any student from an average home finding £120,000 to pay for uni? And that’s just undergraduate, it’s more again if you do postgrad, which is a must for professions like medicine or law etc.

I know that our students here leave with high levels of ‘debt’ but it is atypical debt that you don’t have to pay if you’re not earning and is written off eventually.

Imagine over £100,000 of actual debt upon graduation, before you’ve even started your career. How do American graduates even afford to live? How do they manage to save and buy a home?

I know it must be possible, but I just don’t see how?

Renters pay property tax indirectly (included in their rent, along with charges for garbage pickup and water).

I think the higher US col bit is overstated. As with most aspects of life, YMMV.

COL is higher in the USA, but there's a lot of variables in there. For example, health insurance costs depend on if you're single or married (unless you work for a very generous company that pays 100% for everyone) and some graduates stay on their parents' insurance until they age out at 26. Only owners pay property taxes (of course, this is passed on to renters, but you don't have to budget separately for it). The issue American graduates are having is the same main one that British and Canadian and Australian ones do: the cost of housing is going up faster than wages or inflation as a whole.

One advantage for American public servants is that salaries for teachers are set locally and federal employees have proper COL adjustments for each metro area, though there is a problem at the moment as the top of the scale is capped at Senate pay, so the topmost tier of the GS scale gets capped in the highest COL areas. This is a better system than just whacking on a few thousand quid for London weighting. Also, unless Trump abolishes it, you can earn loan forgiveness when you work for the government.

Also, unless Trump abolishes it, you can earn loan forgiveness when you work for the government.

There are also quite a few other programs that provide for loan forgiveness. For example, certain professions, such as teachers, nurses, and social workers might be able to qualify for loan forgiveness programs especially if they work in underserved geographic areas.

And, yes, renters definitely pay real estate taxes, though indirectly.

Higher wages, lower housing costs, more scholarships, getting loans via that method being the norm.
It's by no means easy, or achievable for most who put the effort in like it is here, but it's a different set of circumstances to here so not directly comparable to "someone with this job in the uk couldn't afford it".
Their grocery and clothing costs are generally higher than here and there is medical insurance to factor in though lots of jobs include that.
Its basically either - reasonably OK job means it's more affordable than it would seem with the same job here, or if you're from a poor family you need to be good at sports or very academic.