My dc is still young, entering grade 8 but I’m starting to look at our money picture and seeing so many kids in our affluent suburb choosing out of state state schools or private schools that are no better than our pretty good (not top tier but solid) in state flagship. Is it really just plain old in state bias? I am from New York and I do remember the bias against Binghamton which seemed so absurd as all the kids I knew who went were bright and resourceful - often simply with less money. Thoughts? I’m not sure I want to cave to this bias.
Often times the OOS schools end up being in the same general range as the state schools, and kids (and some parents) prefer to have a change of scenery. It happens with Rutgers in NJ all the time. Especially in states like NJ where in state all in can easily exceed $30k, kids often can get merit to make other schools about the same cost.
I’m from NY too. Some of the other SUNYs would debate that Bing is the “flagship” 
I was a shallow high schooler who wanted pretty. Thankfully, my older daughter is more practical and doesn’t care about pretty at all, she says she doesn’t even really see much difference. I suspect because her own public high school doesn’t look much different from the building designs of the public universities, they feel familiar. Her favorite school at this point is a SUNY. (Not Bing! Buffalo told us THEY are the flagship!) lol. My d had decided to basically ignore the people that are a bit snobby about the SUNYs. Luckily, most people where we live are pretty good about it. Lots of them choose Bing, UB, and Geneseo with a few Fredonia, Cortland, Brockport and Oswego choices thrown in there too.
I remember being in-state for UConn and touring at UMass. The students there all wanted to know what I thought was so great about UMass because they all wanted to go to UConn. Grass is greener?
I think you are largely right @cnp55
If you look on CC, there are so many west coast kids wanting to go to school on the east coast and vice versa.
Then lots of northerners wanting to go south and vice versa.
So many want something different than what they have locally available.
I live in N.Y. also and the kid refuses to go anywhere near N.Y. We visited Bing last summer and liked it but I think it was because it was her first college visit ever. We have since visited 5 more schools and Bing isn’t even in the running anymore. Most of her choices are a plane ride away.
NY suburban mom here. Tons of kids in our area go to the SUNYs, especially Bing. The sciency kids tend to also like Stonybrook. The more I learn about other State’s systems, the more grateful I am to be in NY. Rather than one flagship that eveyrone wants and few can get, we have many excellent schools with different strengths and different characters. Our tuition is reasonable AND because we don’t have one “star” school like UVA, regular smart kids can actually attend our universities.
My smart, pre-med Jr. will definately be looking at a couple of the SUNYs and one of the CUNYs.
I am also a NY suburban mom and my kids were told that I could pay a SUNY tuition and that was it. If they wanted private or OOS, they had to get the scholarships or make up the difference. Everyone of my kids attended or is attending a SUNY. I saw no point to pay a premium for an OOS school when SUNY’s offer virtually everything.
Stony Brook, H’s alma mater, was rejected by all as none is particularly STEMMY (we are a humanities family) and because it is too close to home. New Paltz was rejected for the same reason. Bing was not an option, even if any of them had the scores and grades for it, as they all thought it and Buff were too big. Two went to Plattsburgh and another Fredonia. All were very happy with their choices. The other 2 attended the local CC but didn’t finish. It was their choice, they are my homebodies.
I think that we who live in NY are lucky to have SUNY and CUNY (of which I am a grad) as options. When my S17 graduated last year, I saw kids with similar grades and scores going to OOS schools like Indiana, Maryland and Delaware and the major difference is those kids families were able to pay the freight and I won’t.
This in-state bias, if it is a thing, is probably an issue only in a few states in the Northeast.
I’ve seen plenty of students on CC calling a state school their dream school, just not anyone from the northeast, and I’ve never heard anyone in NJ (my home state) call Rutgers their dream school. Even students who were lucky to get in based on their scores don’t seem thrilled about going there.
We are from NJ and my DD1 did NOT want to go to Rutgers (everyone I know from Middle school will be there) but was quite happy at SUNY Bing (I was happy too because it is a very good value for OOS). My DD2 thought Rutgers was too big so is thriving at TCNJ.
My suggestion is to say that you only can afford the cost of the state school (and if yours happens to be NJ, then check out TCNJ) and you won’t be signing student loans, so they need to get the net cost the same as instate. So they can pick a cheaper OOS school or apply to schools where they can get merit scholarships.
But also run the Net Price Calculator on a couple OOS schools an see what they think you should pay to see if you would get need based aid.
I think it’s states that don’t have a real flagship that suffer most from the greener grasses bug.
@bopper Your post may be a general one, but in case it was a response to mine, I am in college already, just throwing in my experience from speaking with high schoolers in NJ.
Depends on the state, the student’s intended major, what they are looking at in terms of a campus experience, etc… We did tour our state’s public flagship and my daughter was definitely open to it, but it wasn’t a good fit for her. (Too big, too urban, and not enough undergrad research opportunities in her intended major).
Rutgers is not a real flagship?
In North Carolina, people look at you like you have two heads if your kids go outside of the UNC system. Which makes sense - many great schools, and increasing but still reasonably affordable cost.
It’s totally the excitement of just leaving the state. I live in Florida and know lots of kids that dream of leaving the state. NY, Boston, Maryland etc… With bright futures, tuition here is free for many kids. As much as I’d like to give my kids options, I’ve been paying into Florida prepay since they were born and once that’s combined with bright futures, college will cost next to nothing. UF is tied for the number 9 public school in the country. My friends daughter wants Syracuse for full pay instead of UF for almost free. Just not worth it.
Apologies to those that have already seen this data (I’ve posted it before). This gives you an idea of what % of students are going OOS.
Residence and migration of all first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduates in degree-granting postsecondary institutions, by state or jurisdiction:
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d16/tables/dt16_309.10.asp?current=yes
Nationally, 82% of students enroll in-state (public or private)
In Florida, it’s 88% (the highest is Utah at 90%)
In NY its 82%
In NJ it’s only 64%
^yep Rutgers gets no love
@gallentjill’s accurate assessment of New York State’s public universities is exactly why many top students on Long Island do not want to go there:
The state has not invested in a flagship. Yes, the SUNYs are pretty “even”— the quality of education is solid across many of them. But the down side of this is that class sizes remain large, and US News/Forbes rankings are embarrassingly low for a state with some of the highest achieving students in the nation.
Binghamton seems to be the most attractive state option for the top students on Long Island (except for some STEM-focused kids who pick Stony Brook, and a few kids who are mostly applying to small colleges who pick the mid-sized Geneseo as the closest thing to a LAC). Kids in the top five percent or so of their high school class going to Bing get to go to school with 15-20 other kids from their high school… some of whom have achieved nowhere near their level of academic achievement— they will be going to school not solely surrounded by the state’s smartest kids but also by the “regular smart kids” gallentjill mentioned. (Will they still get a solid education and have many very bright peers? Of course they will.)
For some, the state colleges are their top choice. Usually the reason is financial, but often not because they cannot afford a private college. The top private colleges are much more generous with aid and much more affordable than a SUNY; even with the new free tuition at SUNY, which is great, a truly needy family may pay more at a public than at a top private because of room and board. The state colleges have many students from upper middle class families and upper class families whose families just plain decide that they would rather not pay more for a private college when a bachelor’s degree can be attained for less money at a SUNY. Local families in our area who earn more than I do are choosing to send their students to SUNYs.
So, in summary, some students pick a SUNY because it is a less expensive option. These students often are really excited to attend. But some others go to a SUNY because it picked them, when no other college did. April is a disappointing month for them. Can they have a great time anyway, with bright peers and intellectual satisfaction, once they arrive on campus? Of course they can.