15k in just tuition does not seem outrageous. Suppose a year is 30 weeks, and you spend 10 hours a week in classes (not even counting the other benefits that college/a college campus may offer), thats about 50 dollars/hr you're spending for lecture. For some classes/fields it's clearly a much better deal. But 40k+ in tuition? Yea agreed, that's pretty outrageous.