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<p>In the PRC’s case, educational cost has only been a factor since the very end of the '90s as before that, college was completely free for anyone who qualified for admission. </p>
<p>Moreover, in the PRC after that period to the present and other countries like the ROC(Taiwan), South Korea, and Japan, tuition costs are still much lower than the US, especially for the elite public colleges. </p>
<p>Especially considering unlike here in the US, the popular perception in those countries regarding public or private is completely reversed. It’s the publicly run colleges which tend to be regarded as most elite/respectable whereas with a tiny few exceptions, it’s the private colleges which are regarded with skepticism for academic quality/prestige. </p>
<p>For instance, the current annual tuition for undergrads at UTokyo is around $5,500 per year according to here: [The</a> University of Tokyo [Admission Information] Enrollment fee and tuition](<a href=“http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/stu04/e03_e.html]The”>http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/stu04/e03_e.html)</p>
<p>However, competition to get into the most elite and mostly public colleges is so exceedingly difficult that most students who end up at lower ranking institutions WILL have to pay more in tuition as the institutions who will admit students at this level are more likely to be more expensive private universities. </p>
<p>This is a factor in why few parents from such societies would be likely to allow their kids to come to the US or go abroad to other undergrad programs if they were admitted to an elite public university, especially those in Japan. This is due to the much low tuition costs and common expectations that the “proper path” is to do one’s undergrad in most such countries…especially in Japan’s case, preferably at the most elite institutions like UTokyo and then go abroad to other countries like the US for grad school. </p>
<p>The sky-high tuition even for many US state universities would mean the cost-benefit analysis to such parents is rendered nonsensical from their perspective. </p>
<p>Most of the students going abroad are ones where the parents are wealthy and found their kids failed to make it into the elite public or the tiny handful of elite private colleges and/or those who opt out of the national college exam centered college admission process altogether. This aspect is what’s driving the fear about costs as competition to get into the top and less expensive public colleges is much more keen than to get into most private and more expensive colleges in the lower-tiers of their higher ed system.</p>
<p>Incidentally, the comparatively bargain tuition prices at the elite publics in East Asia combined with the much easier admission process for international students/“overseas descendants/nationals” means a few US-born or immigrants from my high school did end up doing their undergrad there. </p>
<p>One HS classmate ended up going to National Taiwan U to study engineering for this very reason. He and several others like him from extended family/friends mentioned the exam they took was far easier and graded much more leniently than for domestic students admitted under the national college entrance exam system. Main hurdles for American students is to be fully fluent in Mandarin or national language of instruction for other countries and if doing STEM, ensuring their math/science skills are on par with domestic students.</p>