[mywittyname]

The department of education in the USA kind of does that too. The amount of government-backed loans a student can receive for undergrad is capped at ~$35,000 (it's unlimited for graduate school). It's also graduated, so a freshman can only receive ~$4,000 their first year, and it goes up from there. Grants are given to freshman to cover the shortfall. Also, students/parents are expected to contribute, based on household income.

Most public state schools keep their pricing in line with these caps ($35k in loans + ~$5k in grants). I just picked on Iowa because, and here's a list I found:

https://www.universityreview.org/iowa-colleges/

You'll notice that in-state tuition for all public state schools is around $8k a year. Here's the same for Tennessee:

https://www.universityreview.org/tennessee-colleges/

[Sohcahtoa82]

> The amount of government-backed loans a student can receive for undergrad is capped at ~$35,000 (it's unlimited for graduate school). It's also graduated, so a freshman can only receive ~$4,000 their first year, and it goes up from there.

I believe this only applies to the subsidized federal student loans that don't collect interest while you're in school. The limit on unsubsidized federal loans that start collecting interest right away is much higher.

When I started college in 2009, I got $9,000 in federal student loans for my freshman year.

[mywittyname]

https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/loans/subsidized...

Perhaps you were classified as a independent student?

[Sohcahtoa82]

I was independent, for sure. I was 29 and living in my own apartment when I started college.