文|在下林伯虎
用语言丈量世界
不论是怀揣着“美国梦”，漂洋过海，不远万里来美求学的留学生，亦或是吃着肯德基，喝着可口可乐长大的美国本土学生，在美国念大学都是一项非常烧钱的事儿。毕竟，美国是继澳大利亚，新加坡之后，留学费用排名第三的国家。更让人蓝瘦香菇的是美国大学的学费每年以高出通货膨胀率2%-3%的速度在增长。
学费太贵？没事儿，挺住，别难过，学费不过是其中之一罢了。
除了学费(tuition), 你还得交住宿(room charge), 伙食(Board rate), 教材费(Book), 杂项(Miscellaneous expense)等。
更糟心的是，根据威斯康星HOPE实验室的调查研究，大学美国各大学给出的参考花销(sticker price)比你料想的要低。意不意外？惊不惊喜？
虎 哥 课 堂
逗比翻译组 | 出品
美国大学费用超乎你想象
A College Education Costs Even More Than You Thought It Did
来源：NPR
We all know that American college education isn't cheap. But it turns out that it's even less cheap if you look at the numbers more closely. That's what the Wisconsin HOPE Lab did. The lab, part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, conducted four studies to figure out the true price of college. To get a sense of student realities, researchers interviewed students on college campuses across the state of Wisconsin. But they also examined 6,604 colleges nationally and compared their costs with regional cost-of-living data from the government.
但汉松
微博“洛之秋”就是他。某高校某系某老师。
众所周知，美国大学教育不便宜。威斯康星希望实验室（Wisconsin HOPE Lab）声称：倘若仔细核算，实际更不便宜。威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的这家实验室开展了四项研究来弄清上大学的真实花销。为了大致了解学生们的处境，研究人员遍访了整个威斯康星州的大学。 他们还调查了全国6604所大学，并将这些大学的实际花销与地方政府生活成本报告的数据进行对比。
The researchers found that college life is more expensive than sticker prices might suggest, and that financial aid doesn't help students as effectively as it could, especially after the first year. All these findings are summarized in a report from The Century Foundation. Colleges want to keep their sticker price low because it helps with rankings and attracts more students, the report says. But students might be less likely to drop out or take time off of college if they could better plan their college finances.
研究人员发现，大学生活的成本比其标价更高，助学金并不能有效地帮助学生，特别在第一学年之后。所有这些调查结果都总结在《世纪基金会》的一篇报告中。该报告指出，学校希望保持低廉的参考花费，这有助于提升大学排名并吸引更多生源。如果学生能更好地规划开支，那就不太可能退学或者休学。
常言道：“要知其然，更要知其所以然。” 说人话就是：“死也要死个明白。” 看看《世纪基金会》这篇报告中都深扒出了什么幺蛾子。
Here are some key findings:
1. College cost-of-living estimates are too low.
Schools can survey students to figure out how much they're spending, and use that as their cost-of-living number. But the money students report spending might be lower than what they should be spending. The students interviewed were scrimping on basic needs — everything from food to health and dental care.
下面列举几项关键发现：
1. 大学生活成本预估过低。
学校调查并计算出学生们的开销，并以此作为学生生活成本的数据。但学生上报的数字有可能会低于应有的开销。因为受访的学生往往对基本生活需求——从食品到健康到牙齿护理等各个方面精打细算。
2.Students living at home aren't always saving money.
More that 70 percent of stay-at-home students studied were helping their families pay bills. But because those students lived at home, they got less access to aid.
2. 走读生并不省钱
超出百分之七十的走读生会帮助家里偿还账单，但由于这些学生住在家中，更加降低了获得援助的机会。
3.Some majors are more expensive than others.
Students in nursing had to pay for lab work and vaccines. Other majors required expensive study-abroad experience. And some STEM majors found that their textbooks were too expensive and dropped out, or switched majors. Even students in majors like English faced hidden fees. Some paid hundreds of dollars to take an online course when required classes were overbooked.
3. 一些专业的学费相比其他专业贵很多
护理专业的学生需加付实验和疫苗的费用；有的专业要求有昂贵的海外留学经验；还有一些主修科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）专业的学生因为极其昂贵的教材而选择退学或换专业。甚至像英语之类的专业都会有隐性收费。当必修课被预定满后，学生们只能花数百美元去上网络课程。
4.Low-income options are often the least cost-effective.
Take meal plans. The plans with the lowest price gave students the least bang for their buck. If students could afford a laptop, they got free software and other perks. But students who had to rent out laptops were hit with steep fines if they failed to return them in the short borrowing period. If they couldn't afford to live on campus, it was more difficult to return equipment on time.
4. 低收入人群的选择往往性价比最低。
以套餐为例，最便宜的套餐反而最不划算。如果学生付得起笔记本电脑，他就会得到免费的软件和其他一些赠品。但那些不得不租用笔记本电脑的学生如果无法按期归电脑还就会面临高额的罚金。对那些无法承担学校住宿费用的学生来说，按时归还会难上加难。
5.Financial aid calculators overestimate how much parents can pay.
The calculators don't take into account parents' debt, for example, so they may ask for a larger contribution than the parents can actually afford.
5. 经济资助的核算者高估了学生父母的支付能力。
那些核算者并未考虑到学生父母的债务问题，因此他们会要求学生家长支付比实际能力更高的费用。
6.The price that the student pays can increase each academic year.
Forty percent of students studied saw an increase in their share of the bill going into their sophomore year — the median was $1,215. The number jumped again between the second and third year. Many grants focus on freshman year, and drop off afterward. Students can also lose grants if they don't know that they need to refile for FAFSA, or don't understand that they need to meet academic requirements to keep their grant.
6.学生上交的学费逐年上涨。
40%被调查的学生从他们共享的账单中发现，进入大二的花销有所上升，中值是1215美元。中值在进入大三时会再次上涨。许多补助集中在大学一年级，然后会越来越少。如果学生不知道要继续申请FAFSA（联邦政府助学金免费申请），或者不了解他们需要达到一些学术要求来保留补助，他们一样会失去补助。
简而言之，在美国读了四年大学，逐年增长的是开支，与日俱减的是补助。美国大学收费套路深才是永恒不变的真理。因为教材太贵，与其说是愤然退学，倒不如说是无奈之举。
不过话又说回来，用高昂的费用换知识武装的大脑在大家看来也还算是不亏本的买卖。也许，这就是各大高校涨价不眨眼还底气十足的原因之一吧。最后，给大家送上一句祝福：且读且珍惜。
注释
▸ turn out: 最后是;结果是
▸ figure out: 想出来，懂得（~ + a plan; a problem; a way）
▸ sticker price: 建议零售价；标牌价（tag price; price tag）
▸ take time off: stop working temporarily
▸ scrimp: v. (+on) 精打细算；scrimp and save
▸ access to: 获得…的途径
▸ vaccine：疫苗
▸ STEM majors：science, technology, engineering和mathematics的首字母缩写。
▸ overbook：超订
▸ cost-effective：划算的；有成本效益的（Cost Effectiveness Analysis 成本效益分析）
▸ bang for the buck：划算
▸ perk：优惠
▸ take into account：考虑
词汇注释 | 一个AI
文章释义 | 老徐 Ewen Nancy 欣 Iris pikachu
释义编辑 | 海源
本文由知事 转码显示
查看原文
