That's insane. I'm at Waikato University, New Zealand, and we pay around NZD13000 (~= USD9000) a year
I graduated CMU in May. I have quite a bit of debt, but got a good job straight out of school and aim to have the debt paid off in a year by living like the graduate students I live with.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_benefit
(Though realistically the total sum is only enough for paying rent, so most people still end up having to work somewhat during their studies.)