I researched what it would realistically cost for me to go to college (both a community college and state university) and said "fuck that, I'm moving to Finland." Just to be clear, tuition alone costs more money than has ever passed through my hands.
Unless you have Finnish citizenship, you'd still pay through the nose for tuition. Full price for international students, that's how it is in every country. The only reason to let them in in the first place is for the money.
Actually there are no tuition fees in Finland (apart from a few masters degrees), however you must independently cover all your living expenses.
http://www.studyinfinland.fi/tuition_and_scholarships/tuition_feesEDIT for additional info:
Some language courses cost money if you are in Finland with a foreign student's residency permit you can only work 25 hours per week. Also, living expenses can be high and finding an appartment can cause difficulties as well.
EDIT 2: (Electric boogaloo) Actually I might have to read some more about this. Working in Finland makes you qualify for the social security and technically there are no limits to how much you can work while studying. That site I linked has english information and I am trying to read another site about the subject as well. (but a struggling baby on my lap is not hepking with the reading and typing.)
...I'll get back to this.
EDIT 3: (Revenge of the Sith)
things you need for a permit to come studying:
a) pass an exam and get into a university/school
b) you must come to study something that will lead to a job or a degree
c) You must have the funds to support yourself whily studying. (approximately 560€ per month or 6720€ per year)
d) health insurance
Or if you are coming as an exhange student:
a) are an exhange student
b) studies have something to do with the thing you are studying back home.
Aand, I have read way too much about this subject. Let's just say that there is bureucracy involved.
In other matters, things that annoy me:
a) Bureucracy
b) Finding an interesting conversation online and seeing that it has been derailed and driven to the ground before I can comment. Like a discussion about Australian police officer shooting a man who had stabbed him being turned into "Australians are pussies and have no guns" vs "a guy who cannot type a sentence without using the word shitcunt." Or a topic about women and equality in historical rpgs being reduced into "It is not rape if it is not done by penetrating someone with a penis" before the mods closed the topic.