My old University in the US charges in state students 7,000$ per year for tuition 2014-2015 it's 10,200/year out of state.

Plenty of people come up with most or all of that as working students. And one of my roommates came from Europe because it was cheaper than any school in his country though this was a while ago.

My little sister got into a school that charges (ED: 43.2k tuition/year 2015-2016) which she wanted to go to. But, decided to go somewhere else for obvious reason. Some collages in the US charge a lot because they can find students willing to pay that much money, but there plenty of reasonable options.

"Good" private schools (Harvard, Stanford, MIT etc.) charge a lot for tuition then redistribute funds so that people from less affluent backgrounds get need-based scholarships. I think this pressures other private schools to raise costs in order to seem competitive, even though they don't often have the same generous financial aid. In some cases, going to Stanford may be more affordable than going to Berkeley even if you're in-state.

The strange consequence of this is that it is almost better (from a selfish viewpoint), if you are not rich, to not have money saved for college if you send your kid to Harvard, because they'll take any money you do have.

The room and board cost is mostly based on cost of living (Boston and the Bay area are more expensive than Madison, Wisconsin), but financial aid will often cover that too.