Affordable Out-Of-State Colleges?

<p>Many of the public OOS schools’ tuitions are going up because of the economy so you cannot go by any of the books ie: Princeton Review, USNWR, even the collegeboard anymore because most of the tuition figures are incorrect. Many public schools here in the west are going up significantly but have not yet set the OOS tuition for 09/10 ie: UW, Arizonas, not sure about the UC’s for example. UW and the Arizonas are not longer inexpensive OOS schools and appear to be going the way of the UC’s in terms of expense.</p>

<p>SUNY had a 25% increase for OOS this year, and the legislature still thinks they are underpriced.</p>

<p>Wow, 2collegewego, Maryland REALLY raised their tuition for OOS since I looked several years ago.I would still check out Towson Univesity,which I know is a lot less than that of Maryland,but it might have been raised a lot too since I checked it out.</p>

<p>I guess many state universities don’t want to dramitically raise tuition,but they need to do something due to a cut in their funding. Thus, they are raising out of state tuition substantially and increasing the number of out of state students that they will enroll.</p>

<p>The University of Minnesota only charges $4000 more a year for OOS than instate. Applications were way up this year, perhaps because of this change.</p>

<p>When I was applying to colleges to study journalism four years ago, the University of Missouri was the top-ranked J-school in the country. From what I remember, they have pretty cheap out of state tuition. I was also corresponding with somebody in the department, and they were recruiting me pretty heavily (I’m from CT and I think they wanted geographic diversity). Ultimately, I decided that I didn’t want to go that far away and the girl that called me to tell me that Mizzou started cheerleading didn’t really help me feel like the campus culture was for me, but it’s probably worth looking into.</p>

<p>The thing with journalism is that a lot state schools have very good programs – Ohio U is another one that comes to mind. It means she can have financial safeties and apply for merit aid at some other places, but those are some very solid programs.</p>

<p>According to Missouri’s web site the current cost of attendance for an OOS student is roughly 31K per year:</p>

<p>[Costs</a> - Mizzou Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://admissions.missouri.edu/costsAndFinancialAid/costs/index.php]Costs”>Costs - Mizzou Admissions)</p>

<p>eireann – Were you by any chance a cheerleader in high school? Otherwise, it seems very strange that an admissions rep would call you to tell you about a new cheerleading opportunity. That’s almost like calling the random male applicant to tell them the exciting news that a new DKE chapter is coming to campus.</p>

<p>hudsonvalley, no, I have no interest in cheerleading (I’m so not into big sports/parties/any of that either). She wasn’t an admissions rep, she was a student, and I guess Missouri takes cheerleading very seriously and wins a lot of competitions. It might be similar to Uconn trying to lure a student by talking about the strengths of the basketball programs. And now, I’m remember more clearly, they didn’t say they invented cheerleading, but homecoming. They’re both big, though.</p>

<p>And in terms of OOS cost, my impression is that there’s a lot of merit aid there. My stats were not that good and my prior journalism experience almost nonexistent and I feel like if I had gone there I would have paid about $10k. They don’t get a lot of students from the east coast, is my guess.</p>

<p>I grew up in VA but didn’t want to go to one of the “state colleges” like all my classmates who were getting into UVa and W&M (humph!). So I went OOS to a school in NC, went into a career in higher ed, and spent the last third of a century listening to colleagues gush and wax poetic over UVa and W&M. Last year I got what I deserved for my “too-good-for-the-state-colleges” stance as I watched my D apply to UVA . . . at the OOS rate!</p>

<p>here are out of state merit scholarships (automatic) at univ of al</p>

<p>Out-of-State Scholarships for 2009-2010</p>

<p>Please review our FAQ section for details on the scholarships listed below.
Capstone Scholar</p>

<p>An out-of-state first-time freshman student who meets the December 1st scholarship priority deadline, has a 27 ACT or 1200-1230 SAT score and at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA will be selected as a Capstone Scholar and will receive $1,500 per year ($6,000 over four years).
Collegiate Scholar</p>

<p>An out-of-state first-time freshman student who meets the December 1st scholarship priority deadline, has a 28-29 ACT or 1240-1310 SAT score and at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA will be selected as a Collegiate Scholar and will receive $3,500 per year ($14,000 over four years).
UA Scholar</p>

<p>An out-of-state first time freshman student who meets the December 1st scholarship priority deadline, has a 30-31 ACT or 1320-1390 SAT score and at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA will be selected as a UA Scholar and will receive 2/3 tuition.
Presidential Scholar</p>

<p>An out-of-state first-time freshman student who meets the December 1st scholarship priority deadline, has a 32-36 ACT or 1400-1600 SAT score and at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA will be selected as a Presidential Scholar and will receive the value of out-of-state tuition for four years.</p>

<p>I feel your pain gadad. Personally I like UVA and W&M a whole bunch but I’m not the one going to college. DD thought state schools would be too much of the same old stuff and after four years of visits to C-ville for band competitions even UVA seemed to lose its flavor for her. As p56 points out there is merit $$ for OOS to help the wallet…</p>

<p>I know of at least three Minnesota colleges do not charge out of state tuition to out of staters and also have very reasonable prices for room and board:</p>

<p>*Bemidji State University (good for outdoorsy kids, especially those who like winter sports) 12 to 18 credits, $3054 per semester/$6108 for a year’s tuition.
*Southwest Minnesota State University
*University of Minnesota Morris (least expensive public liberal arts college in the U.S. for an international or out of state student)</p>

<p>another one…ut dallas will waive out of state tuition if you qualify for and receive even 1K in merit, their merit scholarships are automatic.</p>

<p>This is a great thread. My daughter has a slightly different problem. She would love to go to UVA, Vtech, or James Madison, but does not have the grades. Even George Mason might be a reach for her. She is interested in the bigger state schools. So that leaves Virginia Commonwealth and Old Dominion University. And the question becomes: how do those schools stack up against comparable out-of-state schools? Would she get a better education at, say, WVU or Ohio University or a SUNY? And is it worth the additional cost? I simply don’t know.</p>

<p>I agree that we have some extraordinary state schools. I only wish my daughter had the grades to get into them! Sigh!</p>

<p>If you can let us know your daughter’s GPA, class rank and test scores maybe we can give you somewhat more informed answers as to which schools might be appropriate and how they compare to ODU and VC. There are significant differences and levels of selectivity, for example, among the SUNYs. </p>

<p>BTW, is Wary Washington a possibility?</p>

<p>William & Mary is the best value for an oos student. No other state school can offer the same environment, quality student body, history, or prestige/pedigree than W&M. Not the cheapest, but you get what you pay for.</p>

<p>Hudsonvalley,
This are just guesses at this point because she has not completed her junior year. I am estimating her GPA at a 3.0, her predicted SATs based on PSAT are 560 V 590M 500 W. Our school does not do class rank but I am speculating that she falls right in the middle of her class. </p>

<p>Mary Washington has become more competitive each year and I think she would be wait-listed or rejected based on what happened to this year’s seniors.</p>

<p>yorkyfan I understand. We were told that the average GPA for this year’s accepted class at VTech was 3.9+. That is so much higher than even a few years ago when mine were applying there. It is getting harder to get into the top 3 VA in-state. Friend’s S was desired by Music Department, but could not get into Tech due to the grades and he had 3.6+. He did get into George Mason, though.</p>

<p>yorkyfan – A student with those stats could probably get in to most of the SUNY colleges excepting Geneseo and New Paltz. However, you say she is interested in a big school, so that means the university centers. Albany is probably your best bet, although her test scores are just shy of Albany’s 25th percentile. I would forget Binghamton. Stony Brook and Buffalo are reaches, but may be in the ballpark if she can get her GPA up to 3.3-3.4 and test scores up to 1150 or so.</p>

<p>Wow, that was a pretty bad typo on my part! “W” and “M” are nowhere near one another on the keyboard.</p>

<p>Almost forgot…the University of Albany, despite its “party school” rep, is a pretty good state university. Better than ODU and VC in my opinion. Albany is one of only two dozen or so public universities and colleges in the country that graduates more than half its incoming freshman class in 4 years or less.</p>

<p>Journalism ideas at state universities: Missouri is about $25K per year and excellent for journalism. (They do other things besides homecoming and cheerleading, but school spirit is very upbeat.) You can qualify for an out-of-state scholarship (about $4000-$5500) with a certain GPA. Have you considered University of Delaware? Penn State, Ohio University, and Indiana University, and the University of Maryland all have good journalism schools. So does UNC-Chapel Hill, a tough admit from OOS. I think $25K is the minimum you can expect to pay (tuition/fees/R&B only) at these schools.</p>