Top universities in Europe (and Canada) are free or almost free

[DFW]

18. Don't get the wrong idea from this

If hundreds of thousands of Americans come flooding into European Universities that teach in English, looking for a free education, their system would break down. Plus, while tuition is free, living here is not. It's very expensive, actually.

The "free" education is not really "free," but is actually paid for by the high taxes imposed on the Europeans. They will not go for having their taxes pay for thousands of American kids looking for a freeload off their parents' taxes. They are already grumbling about having to subsidize a few million Eastern Europeans who are here in western Europe gaming the welfare system. The German welfare system was designed to help out Germans who were having a hard time, not Romanians and Bulgarians as well.

The education itself is often very elitist. When I was in college back in the States, I could get access to my professors, and that was at an Ivy League college. In Europe, they are barely to be found, and often don't want to be. In German universities, anyway, you study your major, period. No "all round" education.

Both my children, who are German citizens, fluent in both German and English, preferred to go to college in the States because they were tired of being taught by uncaring teachers who could never be fired. I was lucky enough to be able to cover that by blowing my inheritance on it (it was still worth it--I love how they turned out), and I realize not everyone has that option. But they had the choice and said "no way" to the system in the country and language they grew up in. It's not all paradise over here, and anyone contemplating it needs to thoroughly check out all angles before rushing over here.