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<p>Try to compare specific apples to specific apples before making general claims. Compare costs at specific schools in the UC system, which generally is considered one of the best systems of public universities in the country, with costs at other highly ranked public universities. Then start comparing significant cost factors at these schools, such as faculty compensation.</p>
<p>Examples (university / total in-state on-campus cost / avg full-time faculty salary)</p>
<p>Berkeley $25K $106K
UC Davis $24K $91K
UC SD $23K $97K</p>
<p>Illinois $23K $89K
Michigan $22K $94K<br>
Wisconsin $18K $84K</p>
<p>UMd $21K $94K
UVa $19K $99K</p>
<p>Observations: yes, the cost of attendance at the UCs tends to be higher than the others, but the spread is not nearly 2:1 as the OP indicated; faculty salaries at the most expensive of these UCs (Berkeley) are higher than at any of the other schools; San Francisco/Oakland is a higher cost-of-living area than Madison, Charlottesville, etc.</p>