It is pretty crazy that US universities are pretty expensive. I go to UBC (ranked between 30-40 in the world) and my undergraduate will probably end up costing 40k. From what I heard a similarily ranked school for a US citizen would cost twice as much.
US universities are the best in the world in research. They have a large majority of all Nobel Prizes in the past few decades. The tuition goes to fund research, which produces prestige for the school, which makes its graduates more employable. People will pay a lot for prestige. If you don't want that, you generally can go to state schools for a lot less.
Also, most people don't actually pay sticker price. A lot of that money collected from rich and upper middle class students goes to financial aid for poorer students. Then there are also merit scholarships.
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90s games > 00s games