We all know the cost of going to colleges/universities is very expensive, and not everyone deals with that cost in the same way. One of me teachers yesterday asked an odd question to us. She asked *how* we were paying for school, and how it was affecting our lifestyle. She asked us to raise our hand when she named the way that we were using to pay.

Nearly all of the class rose their hand when she said, "Student Loans." But each student had a different story. So I figured I'd make a poll, since a lot of the SP members have been or are currently attending some form of higher education.

There are 3 questions: How much was/is the degree program, how did/are you pay(ing) for it, and your living situation at the time.

As for me, I'm going for a Bachelor's Degree in Electronics Engineering...but, I am going to get a 2nd associates degree (2 year) in Information Technology with a focus on computer service and networking before continuing on to get my Bachelor's in EE.

If I decided to just go for the 4 years and only get my BS degree, it would cost about $76,000. But with the 2nd AAS degree in IT before the final 2 years, it will cost $112,000. :eek: Since I'm not paying for it, I figure I might as well get as much education as I can. :thumb:
I got lucky on the payment part of things, as my work is footing the entire bill...I just submit the next quarter's cost, and 3 weeks later I get a check in the mail. But I have to get a 'C' (70% grade) or higher...otherwise, I have to pay my work back.
Living wise, we stayed at my parent's house for the first quarter since we were still saving up for the wedding, but we had moved in to our apartment during the 3rd week of the 2nd quarter.

Now...how about you? :rolling:

Poll Information
This poll contains 3 question(s). 33 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: How did you deal with the high cost of 'higher' education? (33 votes.)

How did/are you pay(ing) for your education? (Choose 3)
* Student loans - 52% (17)
* Grants of any kind - 45% (15)
* Parents/Relatives - 48% (16)
* Private Sponsor (employer, or organization for example) - 9% (3)
* Out of pocket - 36% (12)

How much did the program cost? (Choose 1)
* Under $50,000 - 76% (25)
* $50,000 to $65,000 - 9% (3)
* $66,000 to $80,000 - 0% (0)
* $81,000 to $95,000 - 3% (1)
* $96,000 to $110,000 - 3% (1)
* $111,000 to $125,000 - 9% (3)
* $126,000 to $140,000 - 0% (0)
* $141,000 to $155,000 - 0% (0)
* $156,000 or more - 0% (0)

Where were you living? (Choose 3)
* With parents/relatives - 39% (13)
* On campus housing (dorms and the like) - 36% (12)
* Off campus apartment/condo/town house - 36% (12)
* A house we own or are renting - 9% (3)
* In the back of my car. - 0% (0)

I have a loan of just over £4000 a year, which covers rent (£55/week), food, social life, tuition fees (about £1000/yr) and almost everything. My parents cover the cost of my textbooks (usually about £40 each), and would give me more if I said I needed it. But tbh I'd rather get a job than ask my parents for money, and I'm getting along fine without one.

My house isn't huge, but it's certainly acceptable. I shop at Netto, which is ridiculously cheap (they had a box of 24 packs Walkers crisps for £2), so eating is cheap. There's an off-license nearby that sells 24 cans of beer for £10, and we can get alcohol 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There's also a pub less than a minute walk away that sells a double vodka and mixer for £1.35(!). I think I'm financially secure.

If I decided to just go for the 4 years and only get my BS degree, it would cost about $76,000.US education are damn expensive :eek:
In the Netherlands, the tuition fees are closer to the amount Alavin mentioned.

I voted 'grants of any kind' (among other things).
Dutch students get financial aid from the government. The monthly amount depends on your living situation (at home or on your own), the amount of money your parents make and perhaps some other things. You get this financial aid during the entire normal length of your education; if you have a four year education, you get this aid for four years, after which you can get a student loan from the government. If you finish your education within ten years, you get to keep the amount of money the government gave you in the first four years, but should it take you longer than ten years to finish your education, you'll have to repay the whole thing.

Confusing, eh?

Free here for the students who pass the entry exam up to Nth score, where N is the number of free places they are sporting. ;)

Confusing, eh? Not at all... It's actually quite fair IMO. "Here's some money to help out. If you do a good job and finish school in the normal timeframe, it's yours to keep. However, if you're a lazy bum, and drag 4 years of school over a 10 year period, then you owe it all back!"
It's just the government's way of looking out for its own interests. :)
Free here for the students who pass the entry exam up to Nth score, where N is the number of free places they are sporting. You lucky, lucky ba****d! Ithat is...*if* you're smart enough to be placed in the percentage you mentioned. :p :rolling:

You lucky, lucky ba****d! Ithat is...*if* you're smart enough to be placed in the percentage you mentioned.You're lucky that you don't go to the army if you don't make it. :p On the other hand, that's a huge study motivator. :shake: The trick is to apply for more than one place and make sure there's a sure-to-get one among them (for your skill and level of competition). :D

Well...I have just finished my Bachelor's degree in Science at a Uni in Sydney...

My annual tution fee was 20,000 AUD, with annual living expenses coming to 15,000 AUD...so over 3 years, that works out to about 105,000 AUD...dunno how much that is in USDs...

I financed myself by taking a student loan from a bank and a private loan from a relative of mine, which I will be paying back now that I have started working full time.

And yeah...I was staying in the dorms on campus...awful!! Just awful!!

Parents.

But I think higher education is fairly cheap here. 500 euro tuition fee per year. Then some books and quite some money for the room I'm renting in Leuven.

Over here, it's mostly parents that pay. We don't really have a tradition where students go to work to finance their studies and I don't know anyone with a student loan, though my dad had one at the time.

I attend a public University, so I don’t have to pay anything for my studies. Though, You have to qualify to be able to attend a public Uni, something along the lines of what Chev described.

Loans and lots of cheap food. Top ramen and Cap'n Crunch are a common college student diet here in the states. At least it was for me when i lived in a fraternity house.

My degrees are years old. I had a generous scholarship as an undergrad, but grad school was a shock. I worked nearly full time, took out loans, begged money from relatives, and got a small grant. Took me years to pay off the loans. My advice is to avoid loans as much as possible, but I realize the cost of college/university now puts it out of reach for many in the U.S. without the loans. And, yes, living cheaply, with too many roommates, bad food, no entertainment, helped some, but there is a bottom below which one cannot go on that.

I WAS paying about NZ$250 per subject per semester + books at about NZ$50-70 each per subject. But I only attended for two years, passed the papers I sat then dropped out to actually work after recieving an offer I couldn't turn down.

I went halfsies with my parents for the money during my time of study.

I have 2 or 3 loans outstanding with some collection agencies. They are around 60 grand in total. Paying them off is hard as I can't work and my husband's minimum wage job barely covers things - we can buy food and pay 2 of his bills, but no rent, child support or anything else. We're living with his folks currently.

I'm too poor to qualify for any repayment options and getting an address to send money orders is like getting blood from a turnip. Collections want their money via electronic transfer which I can't do because the banking systems aren't compatible and it costs more to send a MoneyGram than the actual payment!

After 2 degrees and 10 years, college just wasn't worth the effort, time and money. I really wish I hadn't done it.

For my failed university career, I depended upon a scholarship for my first two semesters, then my parents' largess for the following two years.

Later I took a technical diploma program, and secured a 'student line of credit' at private bank, rather than a government student loan. I had to start repaying it as soon as the course was over, BUT I was able to actually pay the school before the training was finished - when we were receiving our diplomas, there were a handful of students that were STILL trying to get their loan money so they could actually PAY the tuition. :nono: Gotta love gov't 'burrocracy'.

On a side note, that line of credit ran to $10k CAD (normally the limit is $6500, but the bank manager knew my parents.) and now I've chipped it down to under $1000 - soon I will be FREE!
:banana:

Full undergrad scholarships baby!

For med school... uh... It'll be painful loans all the way.

Scotland has a cool system, they pay our tuition fees and give us living money, and we only have to pay back the living money, and thats only after we start earning £15k or more a year. My tuition fees at £1200 a year and i get on average £1800 for living, although thats gonna go down when my sis leaves uni cos they reckon my parents can support me more then. Hopefully when i go to "grad school" as they call it in the US ill get a scholarship as the fees over there are extortinate.

Interesting questions, Kitrax.

I can't believe how expensive your course is. How can anybody afford to get a degree. Those costs are insane.

My four year commerce degree cost less than NZ$20,000, including course fees and textbooks, so I was able to cover it with a combination of my bursary, my student allowance, and the money I earned working at the local supermarket. I was living with my parents at the time so that helped, even though I did pay them a small amount of board money.

But I am still gobsmacked at how much your course costs. I thought only doctors and dentists had to pay a lot to get their degrees.

Here, we have state universities and universities owned by people/corporations etc. My university is not a state one. It takes students in two ways. Whether you are quite successful in the university entry exam (we name that exam "OSS" here) and pay about $10.000 a year; or you are exclusively successful in OSS and earn scholarship. I was 143. out of 1.6 million people in the OSS and became a scholar; else my family couldn't afford that university. Moreover, I get $4000 of bursary from the government and university and it will become $5000 in January, so I don't take any money from my parents. It is because of my degree in OSS and these bursaries came to me, I didn't search for them. Sometimes I am proud of myself :shake:

Kitrax, just where were you planning to go?

An associates degree in Information Technology on top of an EE is pretty much useless. You will be far better served to either go for a dual major of EE with either Computer Science or IT from the business school -- they may even have a cross discipline specialty in EE just for IT at the school you are going to. Better yet, go for an MIT (master's degree in business specializing in IT) the pay is much better and you can pay off those loans quickly.

In your own town is an excellent university. University of Utah is a top 25 engineering school and has a highly respected computer science program. You could get a dual degree in EE/CS in 5-6 years at approximately $12,000 per year.

University of Utah is one of the best bargains for education in the country. They also have a great financial aid department there -- I know, I used it. I received ~$5,000 per year in grants and loans. I also had a scholarship from the US Navy (sadly, there is no NROTC at Utah anymore). Utah also has the best on-campus family housing program I've seen anywhere. The apartments are small, but well maintained and low cost -- utilities are included in the rent.

At a cost of $12,000 per year, plus tack on $2-3,000 spending cash -- subtract from that the amount of money you think you can make working part time (~$7,500) and now you are only borrowing at most $30,000 for four years (less is you get grants). Considering the starting salary for an EE is ~$50,000 per year, you shouldn't have too many problems paying that back.

I used loans, grants and scholarships to get my undergraduate degree and owed ~$10,000 when I graduated (that was a lot of money waaaayyy back then). Graduate school is more complex. Most science and engineering schools PAY their graduate students. I owed nothing after graduate school.

My college is busting my ass for 30k USD a year (B.A. only, haven't decided on Grad school or not yet, seeing as I am currently a college senior, I definitely won't be going to Grad school right away). Spartan living for me. My wealthy grandmother has financed a good amount of my college, while student loans and grants are covering about half of my expense. Parents also are shelling up a lot of cash.

30k USD a year I'm sorry, but that is daylight robbery!

I'm on a student loan of just over £4000 a yar. As I'm in Wales, my tuition is only £1200 this year, but goes up to £3000 next year, when my loan will go up to. I have £3000 a year to live on. My parents and grandparents paid my Accomodation, which is in a student village owned and maintained by the uni just beside the campus.

I'm not too good at budgeting, so I need a job to complement my loan...

Free around here as long as you pass the N chev mentioned earlier. I'm personally quite lucky in this department since I get in easier with the Swedish quotas. However I haven't got a place to study yet mostly because I wanted to deal with the army before moving on. I have a good amount of savings for living when I study but eventually I might consider working for some extra cash aside studying. The studying subsidies aren't exactly as large as many would want. Like most Finns I try to avoid loans as long as possible, I think the depression came with a big load of mistrust towards taking loands around here, especially since the financial security of a student is not as certain as it used to be.

@chev Bah! The military service is good for you! I personally am very satsfied and glad that I did it. A whole bunch of good and bad unforgettable memories and an expirience I won't easily forget. I personally think the army as in a way part of the mandatory educational programme. It teaches how to deal in extreme circumstances under extreme stress and is a good way to test your psychological and physical limits.

Oh and Kit, we do pay for the free education with very high taxes once we do get work. Nothing preventing you from sucking the education out of the government first and then moving away though. :p

I didn't really, I just went straight into work.

Was lucky enough to go through whilst Uni's were still free (tuition wise) and student grants were available.
Grants were means tested on parents salary, with mortgage taken into account. As my parents had just split up, and my father has just got a new mortgage, we based it on him, so I almost got the full grant. The University had kindly provided average spending requirements, so my parents stumped up the difference. It pretty much worked out that the grant covered accomodation, and the folks covered food and travel.
I then took summer jobs to pay for booze, going out etc.

I went to the state university where my family was living, so I got a great education for a great price - back in 1985 dollars, of course. ;) I honestly don't know what tuition, etc., there is now, and I'm afraid to look!

Dad had given my sister and I each the same choice - he'd pay for either a college education (with a tuition cap, and we were expected to earn our spending money with a summer job), or for a wedding. I took the bachelor's degree and ran. :)

Of course, when I eventually DID get married, Mom kicked in a nice chunk of the wedding expenses. ;)

To get my bachelor's and master's degrees cost me in total around $35,000 CDN in tuition - which would ba around $30,000 USD. I received around $12,000 in academic scholarships and I paid the rest myself by working.

I was in a co-op program during my bachelor's degree meaning that we had work terms for which the University would assist us in finding jobs in our chosen field. I earned pretty good money from that. When I finished school not only was I debt free but I actually ended up with savings of around $30,000 CDN.

The cost of education in the U.S. is ridiculous. The better colleges and universities can easily cost you more than $30,000 USD per year. I'd guess the average cost of a year at college is somewhere around $20,000 USD per year. That's not taking into account graduate programs - doctor and lawyers typically pay well over $30,000 per year for their graduate degrees. So unless you are fotunate enough to receive a scholarship, or your parents are independently wealthy, you're practically guaranteed to come out with a student loan.

I have a 4 year undergraduate degree and a master's degree. I completed the undergraduate degree back in 1997, and the graduate degree in 2002. Total cost for both degrees was approximately $120,000 USD. I got lucky and got a scholarship for my graduate degree, and paid for my undergraduate degree via loans, my parents, and working to contribute as much as I could. I've been done with my undergraduate degree for almost 10 years now, have been paying on it regularly, and I still owe about $10,000 on it. I also lived at home with my parents to save money. I certainly couldn't afford rent on top of everything else.

A lot of people cannot believe how much it costs to go to a college or university in the U.S. I cannot believe how little it costs in some countries. In many places, you can get your entire education for what it costs us to get one year, and in some places you pay nothing at all! There are a few people who go to school for free in the U.S. based on an academic or athletic scholarship - but we're talking about the top 1% of academically gifted people and the top 1% of athletically gifted people.

EDIT: And still owing $10,000 on your loans when you're in your 30s is considered pretty good in the U.S. My brother is a doctor, and he come out of school owing nearly $200,000 USD.

[ December 07, 2006, 19:44: Message edited by: Aldeth the Foppish Idiot ]

What is really scary about that is that, as was discussed in the money thread, you need somewhere in the ballpark of $1.5 million in savings by the time you retire. If you are taking well into your thirties to pay down the huge student debt that really cuts into the time that you have to accumulate the savings for retirement.

[ December 07, 2006, 18:10: Message edited by: JSBB ]

Holy moly, I thought student costs were ridiculous in the UK!

Taking a full degree in the US would surely leave you broke for years and years? Surely it would be cheaper to live somewhere in Europe and take your higher education there, then go back?

I heard that in Sweden the government fund higher education, so that all can have the same opportunities. I'm not sure how true that is as I've seen heard it confirmed anywhere.

I think I would welcome the idea of folding the NHS and instead using the tax to allow less privileged people to achieve good degrees.

EDIT - Sorry, I said Sweden up there and I meant Finland. Easily mixed up though, eh guys? (chuckle)

[ December 07, 2006, 18:55: Message edited by: Barmy Army ]

Whoa, after reading the posts in this thread, my plans of getting an education abroad are pretty much gone. Even though an education of a higher type is not free over here in Sweden, it is certainly much less expensive compared to, say, the US.

The problem is I have yet to find something that I am really interested of to study. I could do economics, since that's what my "major" is right now, but I don't really find it that fun.

Taking a full degree in the US would surely leave you broke for years and years?Well, it's not necessarily a bad investment. I read an article about a year ago, which was talking precisely about whether or not it was worth it to invest in a higher education. As it turns out the average person with a college/university education makes on average of $1.5 million USD more than the same person without a college/university education over the course of their life. So from that perspective, it's not as bad. You'll be strapped more financially early on in life, but in the end, you make it all back plus a lot more than if you had done something that didn't require you to get a degree.

About to graduate, in four or five months, and the total cost of the master's papers will be around 15.000 €. Even though the education is free, you have to live too, since the government funds meant for supporting the livelyhood of students are so low (net ~100 € month after rent).

So if any of you want to hire me, now would be the time. :D

When I go to university next year its going to cost me £3,000 (GBP) a year, for 3 years so alltogether thats around $17,000-18,000 (USD). My living costs will be mostly payed for by the government as coming from a single parent family I'm eligible for a grant of £2,700 a year (about $5,500). My fee's dont seem that bad compare to some of yours. Anything over $50,000 seems absolutely crazy to me, even if you get a very good job with your degree I wouldn't fancy being $50,000 in debt.

Well, daddy and step-mommy work at the local colleges (daddy on faculty, step-mommy on staff), so dear child AMaster doesn't have to pay any tuition.

Which means it costs me $3k a semester for fees and food + another $3k for housing.

Small loans + part-time job = how I pay $12k/year.

A high monthly payment plan. I have years to go to pay off my loans. One of the reaseons I ahve three jobs! The other three reasons are daughters 1,2, and 3, and they take the bigger chunk.

For undergraduate in New Zealand at the moment, it's costing me about NZ$4000 a year. For a basic BA, that'll add to about $12,000, of which I can get all the fees paid for from an interest free loan (as long as I stay int he country 'til it's paid off) from the government.

As my parents earn over 60K per year, the government doesn't offer me any allowance, which it offers many people, but I can get a living expense loan of $150 per week. Living this year cost me around NZ$8,000, but then I'm in one of the more costly areas to live in, university wise. As the living expenses loan thing doesn't cover the full living costs around here (even if you do go for the cheapest options, which I'm not), so that so far has been partly paid for by a scholar ship, and now that that has run out, by working part time.

In Australia (Queensland, at least) the government pays for you until you've finished uni and are making decent money - they then take small amounts out of your pay until it's payed off.

Sounds like a good system to me - and America's sounds extra ****ed up.

The cost of education in the U.S. is ridiculous.Again, Aldeth and I agree on something.

Why don't more American kids go overseas for their degrees then? Plenty of Asian kids come to NZ for their degrees. It would be ridiculously cheaper, and you'd get an overseas experience at the same time!

I live in Denmark its paid through the taxes and the state pays roughly 2/3 of my expenses. so i work a bit to support my living. going for a master in some form of archeology (currently greek/roman)

Well, there is no tuiton of any kind here which means you only need to cover living expenses and literature yourself. I took full student loans for four and a half year which totalled to about 23k € or there abouts. In addition to the loan you also get a grant from the government while studying which is on around 230€ a month which is like a "free" part of your student loans. I also worked a but during my time at university to pay for those extra things mostly partying and some travels.

Bahir, what the hell are you talking about the education not being free in Sweden?! What exactly is it you pay? Do you consider it not free when you have to pay and fix living expenses yourself or what do you mean? You can go into any University in Sweden and apply and be accepted based on academical grounds alone and you dont have to ever pay a single dime to the school in question.

[ December 10, 2006, 14:34: Message edited by: joacqin ]

Kitrax, just where were you planning to go?

An associates degree in Information Technology on top of an EE is pretty much useless. I'm looking out for the me now on that one. :p You see, to become a entry level production tech at my work, you need an AAS in EE. My work is so nice however, that they give you a 15% pay raise for getting cross trained in a different yet similar career field...(a maintenance tech is more valuable if he can fix the hardware *and* the software of a $12 million piece of equipment)...plus, they are paying 100% of it, so I figure, if I end up not liking EE as a career, I still have a degree in IT to fall back on. :bigeyes: Call it career security. I just want something I can always fall back on if things don't work out.

Also, I didn't say that I was going to stop at an AAS degree in IT. If I like it, I might get a second BS degree. :rolling:

Why don't more American kids go overseas for their degrees then? Plenty of Asian kids come to NZ for their degrees. It would be ridiculously cheaper, and you'd get an overseas experience at the same time! Yes, and others have suggested this too. However, I am inclined to think that it can't just be the overly intelligent members of SP who are smart enough to figure this out. Maybe it is not as simple as it sounds. For example, one of the reasons that education may be much cheaper in other countries is that it is subsidized by tax income. Since an American obviously isn't paying taxes to a foreign nation, it would seem more than a little unfair of him/her to benefit from a system in which he/she does not pay into. So perhaps if an American attends a foreign university he/she is expected to pay significantly more than a resident of that nation?

Someone at our college came over here from India last year and she wont be going to university next year as instead of £3,000 PA they are going to charge her £10,000 PA until she has been a British citizen for 5 years, this backs up Aldeth's point.

No, Aldeth it doesn't work that way (in the UK at least). Regardless of who you are, or what your background is, everyone pays the same rates.

Basically how it works here is that you can get a 'pass' to stay in the UK for 6 months (I'm pretty sure it's 6 months anyway). For longer, you need a Visa. Now most courses take over 6 months, you know what I mean, and most young people might struggle to get a Visa (especially if they're from an underprivileged country). Saying that though, quite a few people come to the UK from abroad to study, or just to stay for a few years. You'd be surprised the amount of young Aussies/Kiwi's/French etc. you see here. Christ knows why they come to Britain, of all places.

@ Duffin - That's odd mate, that's different to what I heard. There's an Aussie I work with who's studying and as far as I'm aware, he didn't pay any extra. I might be wrong though. It's probably a really complicated system.

I'm sure thats what she said, maybe its changed in the last few years since you started uni. I know that in Wales or Scotland if your Welsh or Scottish respectively you only pay £1,500 (or something like that) but if your English you play the full whammy of 3 grand. That pisses me off a little as Scottish taxes are subsidised by 10 Billion pounds from English taxpayers money for Scotland's yearly government budget so why the hell should English students have to pay more? We dont charge Scottish students more than us in England, if we did they'd go crazy.

Oh I'm not at uni and have never been to uni. I work with this Aussie kid and he studies at nights and weekends. I don't know what course he is doing. Perhaps that's what decides it. God knows.

Scotland are wanting independence. Let them have it I say, and we can keep the tax subsidies we feed into that country year in, year out. They moan and moan about us and are forever giving us gip, I say we just cut them loose and see how they do on their own for a bit.

You'd be surprised the amount of young Aussies/Kiwi's/French etc. you see here. Christ knows why they come to Britain, of all places. Not if you live in New Zealand and see that there are virtually no Kiwis in their 20s here at all. They are all in England. Makes hiring staff a nightmare. Anyway, they all go to England because:
a) you let us in
b) you speak English (or a strange form of it anyway)
c) you let us work there
d) you pay us 3 times what you would pay us in NZ so we can spend a few years getting rich
e) you are close to some cool places to explore (like Europe) which are too far away from NZ to go on holidays to
f) you don't mind that when we decide to leave and take all our precious GBP back home with us.

A bit off-topic, but what's life like in New Zealand? Is a good place to move to? A lot of Britons move to Australia for a more chilled out life, but I never hear of anyone moving to live in New Zealand. It seems a beautiful country to me. How does the quality of life compare to Britain (from somebody who's spent time in both places)?

Stacks of Brits come to live in New Zealand. I work with loads of them. I've asked them the question and they say they come here because:
a) they feel like it is safer for their kids
b) they think the schools are better (way to stay on topic, eh?)
c) they can afford to buy a house here
d) they like being 5 minutes away from a beach, countryside, mountainm or forest.
e) they like the people here
f) they wanted a change

My student loan is pretty big, but I never bother about it. I'm just hoping that the student loan scam they're pulling here in NZ will be abolished by the time I graduate...which is many many many years from now.

I never hear of anyone moving to live in New Zealand. It seems a beautiful country to me.I have gotten the same kind of impression, but recently I read about the contrary. Many, many sheeps eating away the land, it said...

Nevertheless, I hope I can give NZ a try in a year or two, after graduating. Provided that I get a job and the embassy isn't a total arsehat (like embassies tend to be).

Including living expenses, the cost of my education was well in excess of $50,000 per year.

I took a little different route to pay for it. I spent pretty much all of my free time then trading stocks and founded a few small businesses.

So, in addition to my school work, I was working 60+ hours per week on these things.

Suffice it to say that I don't have any student loans and was not desperate to find a job upon graduation.

@ joacqin and Bahir the Red: a swedish education is almost free, but not entirely. The cost (which is very low compared to the US for example) is that you are obligated to be a member of a student union (studenkår). This cost is different from university to university, but I believe it is mandatory (correct me I'm wrong). I've studied at 2 different universities (don't know if KTH is regarded as a university or college or something else though) and that's the rules I have heard on both places.

What you pay to the Student Union has really nothing to do with your education. What you are paying for is to enable the student union to handle various activities. Mostly pubs with really cheap booze but also a couple of lawyers and the like in case you happen to come into conflict with your school for any reason. The only reason this fee is mandatory is because the student union once upon a time had very very good negotiators and made it so you couldnt get any grades noted down before you paid up. It is basically just another form of Swedish solidarity/communism depending on your point of view and has absolutely nothing to do with tuiton or paying for your education.

Well, I'm not as cunning in the matter as I should and want to be (seeing as this is my last term before being able to go to a university), but when I say that getting an education in Sweden is not completely free, I include costs of living, student litterature and perhaps other kinds (private or special) education that can run the costs up. I include those (perhaps not the last) because without means to cover them, you simply won't be able to get an education here. Why else would there be student loans?

I'm getting federal and state grants, which covers the $1200 per semester in fees, and between $400-500 in books.
I also take out $3000 in loans and work part time to be able to live.
Normall,y my mother would help me out, but she went back to school when I did, so we are both equally financially crunched.

I'm currently enrolled for a 2 year A.A.S. degree, but if I decide to transfer to the Unviersity, tuition will go up to $27,000 per school year. I might get a slightly lower tuition since I'm employed by the University, but I haven't looked into that, since I'm not sure I'm going to transfer.

in a lovely little country called Denmark, we have this thing called SU(in danish that's statens uddannelsesstøtte) in english: the governments educational support.

wich means that 99% of all educations are free of charge, exept for books wich is about 1000USD all in all for 5 years, and you actually GET PAID to go to school.

you can actually if you meet the right requirements get close to 900USD/month to go to school

i currently get around around 200USD a month, and i have to work as well