I know I would never pursue my PhD in US due to financial constraint ... but can anyone give a rough idea how much is the living cost to live there? Let's put aside the tuition fees .. how much minimum per year do I need to live as a student?

Example > 100 top universities such as  :

1) Michigan State University
2) Texas A&M University
3) Stony Brook University
4) University of Florida
Thanks 

* Yeah .. India the only cheaper choice I have now .. 

i believe if u r going to US, there will only be two kind of ppl.

1. Rich ass who go for the cool factor
2. Hardworking scholar who wants the best education and what does hardworking scholar normally gets? Scholarships.

for 500K own money ... I should banned myself from entering this thread liao ... 

thanks for the estimated figure 

Some people have the impression that it is easier to academically score in the us than the uk = us is of low quality... Kinda annoys me a little.

I wonder what it means when people say the us' education system is more liberal... 

while I agree with your other descriptions regarding the UK, Australian and graduate school (masters), I disagree that the US system has less engineering classes in undergraduate years. Sure, they throw in required electives, but I don't feel that I had as many to take than I did engineering classes. Most electives can be cleared out in the first year foundation courses or even test out or transfer credits, leaving the next three years to be solely focused on your chosen engineering field - which ends up being similar to the UK system.

I was not one of those fortunate ones with the ability to do away with many elective classes (I received transfer credit for only one and it wasn't a class I would have taken anyway). Even so, for every three engineering classes that I was required to take, I had only one or no electives, so I reiterate my disagreement that the US system has less undergraduate engineering classes.

A masters or even PhD in engineering (in the US at least) focuses on a specific area of interest within engineering, hence the totality of engineering classes taken in graduate school. I opted for specialization in the industry, rather than school, though I still am toying with the idea of a masters.

But happy_berry, like marubox said, the difficulty (or ease) in obtaining a US degree depends entirely on two things: the caliber of the school and your abilities.