Cheap out-of-state colleges

<p>Could someone provide me with a list of colleges whose tuition and room/board combined would cost no more than $10,000 for a student in Virginia? (Or if it's more than $10,000, the college gives a lot of financial aid). Also, preferably, the college should have electrical or computer engineering as a major.</p>

<p>I may be wrong, but suspect that you will find a hard time finding a school where the OOS tuition/ room/ board costs are under $10,000. Even IN the state of VA as an in-state student your tuition/room/board costs at 4-year universities will be about 15,500+. per year. </p>

<p>What are your stats? Depending, there may be some OOS schools where you could receive automatic merit based upon GPA and test scores.</p>

<p>What is your family’s EFC? </p>

<p>Are you a National Merit Finalist? </p>

<p>What year are you in school?</p>

<p>This information will help people suggest possible options.</p>

<p>-Stats: 3.86 GPA for the first year & summer, currently in third semester of college (GPA is probably gonna go down a bit after this semester…)
SAT: 1860, ACT: 31 (do test scores really matter for transfer students though?)</p>

<p>-Family’s EFC was about $13,000 last year</p>

<p>-Not a national merit finalist</p>

<p>-Current second year college student (EE major)</p>

<p>I could get $7500 in federal loans and my family could pay about $2500, which is why I’m aiming for a college with cost of $10,000</p>

<p>Can you commute from home to a public U?</p>

<p>That will probably be your best affordable choice.</p>

<p>In Virginia, IN-STATE tuition + room/board cost more than $10,000 per year for a PUBLIC university. (I know this for a fact for Virginia Tech, UVA, VCU, GMU, JMU, etc.) In fact, it’s probably not little per semester.</p>

<p>At Virginia Tech, for example, the COA is $10,000 per semester. It is even more at VCU and UVA. Not sure about the other schools.</p>

<p>I know all of the above VA colleges I listed have both computer and electrical engineering majors. At that, Virginia Tech has a highly ranked Engineering program (I’m not just saying that because I attend the school either. It is a top ranked program.)</p>

<p>Finally, financial aid & scholarships for transfers is terrible, since most of the best go to incoming Freshmen …so going out of state would probably not be ideal if money is a concern. I know someone who transferred between in-state schools in VA and still had problems getting all the money she needed for school!</p>

<p>I have to agree that you are going to find it very difficult to locate a school with a COA of $10,000.</p>

<p>The least expensive school that I know of which has both majors you are looking for is South Datkota School of Mines. It’s COA is approx $16,000.</p>

<p>Because you are a transfer student you would need to check with the school to see if any scholarships would be available to you. Most are earmarked for incoming freshmen.</p>

<p>I can’t think of any school where OOS total cost of attendance is going to be in the $10K range, and in addition, I can’t think of any that guarantee to meet the financial need of transfer students. </p>

<p>And re: merit aid, I can’t think of any that give substantial merit aid to out of state TRANSFER students.</p>

<p>Are you currently at a 2 year CC or a 4 year college? In VA? If at a CC most will have articulation agreements with 4 year VA schools. This would make it easier to complete your education on time, saving money. </p>

<p>If you commute from home it will be easier for the 7500 loan and the money from family to cover your costs.</p>

<p>Unless I’m misreading past posts, this student was a freshman at Virginia Tech in the fall of 2009, majoringing in engineering. This means he is currently a sophomore (assuming he passed all of his classes). </p>

<p>So…transfering to a community college is not an option. Transfering with signficant aid to another VA school (unless it’s UVA which does meet full need) will not probably yield a total cost of under $10K per year. Transfering to an out of state public or a private will more than likely cost FAR MORE than $10K per year.</p>

<p>I meant if he was currently at a CC he could transfer to a VA school with articulation agreement and have a good chance of completing his degree on time. If the 4-year school was close to home he could commute, and that would help keep the costs down.</p>

<p>It sounds as if he is already at a 4 year school. I teach at another 4 year school in VA, and one thing that students often do not realize is that all of their general education credits may not transfer to the new 4 year VA school from the old 4 year VA school if they transfer. This can add to the time it will take to graduate.</p>

<p>The student may currently be in a situation of not being able to afford his current school.</p>

<p>Hopefully, he has not accumulated a balance because that will need to get paid off before he can start at another school.</p>

<p>Anyway…he probably needs to go to a state school where he can commute to from home.</p>

<p>The unfortunate thing is that when he was a senior in high school, his stats were high enough that he could have gotten significant merit at many schools. It sounds like he either wasn’t aware of that or didn’t avail himself.</p>

<p>Commuting is probably the best option. I don’t think that it’s possible to get tuition, room, and board down to $10k total for an out of state college, unless you land a merit scholarship (a really, really good merit scholarship).</p>

<p>It would be hard to find many (any) schools where tuition and room and board comes in at under $10k for instate students, let alone OOS students. Except maybe for 2 year junior colleges.</p>

<p>Virginia State University’s total cost of attendance is about $8,000 (in-state); they also have computer engineering as a major. Would VSU be a good option?</p>

<p>Where are you getting $8,000 COA for Virginia State U? According to their website the direct costs (tuition, fees, room and board) for an instate student are around $14,700. Once you add books, travel etc their COA is a little over $17,000.</p>

<p>If you are just looking at tuition, mandatory fees and books then it might come in at around $8,000 (for instate).</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.vsu.edu/PDFFiles/misc/Tuition_and_Fee_Guide_2010_2011Master_7-21-10.pdf[/url]”>http://www.vsu.edu/PDFFiles/misc/Tuition_and_Fee_Guide_2010_2011Master_7-21-10.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
– On page 3, it says the cost of tuition and room & board is $7,361 for virginia residents.</p>

<p>That’s for a semester. I assumed you were looking for annual costs.</p>

<p>Oh I see >_></p>

<p>Yea, don’t know why they do that. Most people are wanting to know the annual cost. Kind of like seeing a cheap plane fare then finding out it is one way.</p>

<p>If the total costs are in the $15000 range and this student will be a junior, he will get $6500 in Stafford loans (or is it $7500)…very close to half the amount of the cost. Summer job(yes plural) and work during the school year could make up the difference between the Stafford and the cost of attendance…if he is able to earn enough during the summer and during the school year. Are the OPs parents planning to help out at all?</p>