Hi! I’m a HS student from Ohio, and I’m trying to research a bit about the financial aid offered by public out of state schools. I know public colleges typically don’t offer good financial packages to out of state students, but are there any that offer decent amounts of financial aid (not loans)?
A little bit about me: I wasn’t an outstanding student when starting high school, but as an upperclassman I really picked myself and showed major improvement. I have a 4.1 W/3.5 UW GPA and a 30 ACT (only have taken once, plan on taking again to get my goal of a 32+) I’m planning on majoring in accounting.
Since I’m not expecting to get tons of merit aid, what OOS would offer pretty good aid to a student like me? If anyone has any suggestions, I would be so greatful!
Also, does anyone know if the University of Massachusetts, University of Delaware, or James Madison University offer decent financial aid (need based or merit based) to OOS?
Do you know what your EFC is? Usually only the more selective schools meet full need. JMU, UDel and UMass most likely won’t and their merit usually won’t bring the cost down below your in state options.
There are 3 public schools that meet need for OOS students: UNC, UVA, and the U of Michigan (I believe families must earn less than $90,000 per year at Michigan). These 3 schools are reaches for most OOS students.
What can your family afford? Can they afford to pay for your instate schools? If you are looking for merit you will have to come down in selectivity.
Why just OOS public schools? Consider private schools as well.
Agree that you need to know how much your parents can/will pay for college per year.
Then run each school’s net price calculator to get an estimated cost. NPCs may not be accurate if your parents are divorced, own a business, or have real estate beyond a primary home.
Take a look at OSU and Miami Ohio, both very good for accounting and in-state for you. Do those schools look affordable, or appeal to you?
Also, in many states accounting majors who want to sit for the CPA exam need 150 credit hours, which is basically 5 years/master’s degree. Here are Ohio’s requirements: https://acc.ohio.gov/CPA-Exam
These three schools, you need very high grades and scores OOS. UVA is 3.9-4.0 GPA UW OOS. Same with UNC. Michigan is 3.7-3.9. Probably need 32+ on ACT. And to get into Michigan business school direct admit you need higher. And as mentioned, they are a reach for many students.
I would look at schools like Wisconsin, Indiana, ASU Barrett, UMASS Honors, and Penn State. All have very good business schools and are closer to the OP’s GPAs and scores. And may extend more aid to OOS.
Why not consider Ohio State? They have a very good accounting program and in state tuition is a deal.
Thanks everyone for your responses, and I’ll definitely be applying to OSU and Miami U! I’m just trying to look into applying to a few other OOS schools to have a few options, but I agree that my instate schools would be amazing options that are also affordable! The current OOS public schools on my list are UWisconsin, UIllinois, and UPitt, but I’m not confident that these schools are going to be generous with aid based off of what I’ve heard. I’m also looking it OOS privates, but I didn’t ask about them in this thread because I know that they’re more generous with aid and also have a good sense of which privates I will be applying to.
Also, I will definitely check out the EFC calculator and college net calculator. I’m pretty new to this all, so thank you everyone for giving me some really good advice. Much is appreciated:)
Wisconsin and UIUC will likely give you no merit aid and no need based aid, of course you can take out the $5,500 frosh student loan (which is considered financial aid).
While Pitt does give merit aid, I believe your ACT is a bit low…look on this year’s Pitt threads, but I think the merit aid starts at around a 33.