Katak, kataks everywhere !

Malaysians and Malay are truly the proverbial katak bawah tempurung. I guess it's a mark of a denial symptom and a combination of a truly secluded society running on State sanctioned television broadcast and a cartel of major political parties controlling multiple mainstream media channels (both in print and broadcast)

One commenter who goes by the name of Jamil actually "pitied" me in that with university fees as high as US60,000 per year and according to him "good luck with your savings"

I actually pity him and am ashamed of him, pity him for his ignorance. I guess the adage, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed is king, holds so true. In Malaysia, where idiots rule, those who can read and speak a little English is a prodigy.

Firstly, let's take the published rate for a typical private school (say the prestigious Stanford University, in Palo Alto is USD34,800)
This does not takes into account grants, endownments which are pretty substantial.
See here for aid statistics (http://www.stanford.edu/home/statistics/#financial)
and here for fees (http://www.stanford.edu/home/statistics/#expenses)

Let's take another prestigious public school, UC Berkeley - Per semester is 4,465.75 for California residents and 14,769.75 for non-residents.
Medical Program is 12,353.25 per year for residents
http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Registration/feesched.html
Again, this is the publish rate, which in most cases are much higher and does not include any financial aid and grants.

Translated to RM terms with dollar to dollar value, can you afford that kind of fees ?
MBA programme at Indiana University - $9489.00/term for Indiana residents
Another private school, Dartmouth University - $36915 per year (http://www.dartmouth.edu/apply/financialaid/)
It even comes with a disclaimer for the fees.

If you're considering Dartmouth, don't hesitate to apply because you think your family won't be able to afford the cost of a Dartmouth education. We meet 100% of each student's demonstrated need for all four years of your undergraduate career.

Approximate tuition at another public school, Purdue University - for Indiana residents is $8,060 per academic year
http://www.purdue.edu/Admissions/Undergrad/costs/estimated_expenses.shtml
And of course, one can google more examples.

Closer to home, Australia National University charges A$8499 per ETFSL for Medicine.
EFTSL is the study load, for a year, of a student undertaking a course of study on a full-time basis.

International students pay A$40800 for MBBS and that is for Graduate Entry only.
National University of Singapore , Medicine - $18,230 for Singapore Citizens

Put $5000 per year into an college investment account every year and hopefully within 18 years and with a reasonable rate of return, say 6%, the college fund could grow to close to USD100,000 (not taking into account the effects of compounding).
Can I afford to have my kids at Stanford or Purdue. You bet I can.

Question is can you have your kids at Stanford or Purdue with your savings in RM ?

Of course, Malaysians don't need Stanford, neither do they need Dartmouth, Indiana nor Purdue - their universities are the best.

Graduates from Malaysian local universities can communicate with the Chams in Kampuchea. Which I am so ashamed to say, the typical Dartmouth business major will not be able to do.