Books. My middle daughter is a freshman in the US… we are approaching $1000 for books and that includes rentals. For an elective class the book is $320, the school forces you to buy the new book in order to get the access code, there is no alternative for buying a second hand book, at that point it ceases to be about the education its all about the money. My eldest is a rising junior in the UK, she has never had to buy a book, the main library and departmental library have enough copies that she doesn’t need to buy them.