Tuition and fees at perfectly decent public universities in the US are usually between $2000 and $8000 a year for in-state students, depending on the state and the school. Out-of-state students do pay more, but it's still usually less than $20,000.

Only top ranked private universities charge as much as $50,000 and they tend to offer much better financial support than public universities are able to. That being said, there are a handful of public universities that have better academic reputations (and such) than many of those overpriced private universities, if such things matter to one.

All of which is still appallingly expensive when compared to Norwegian universities. Yes.