<p>"Many of the nation's top public universities accepted nonresident students in greater numbers this year, hoping to increase -- or at least sustain -- a pool of incoming freshmen who pay two or three times the tuition charged to locals. At some schools, the push for nonresidents has made it harder for residents to get in.</p>
<p>Public universities with the cache to attract out-of-state students have courted them for decades. But universities are looking harder at nonresident students and their tuition dollars during the recession as other revenue sources dwindle. State funding has eroded by 10 percent in Maryland and by 20 percent or more in Virginia since the start of the downturn, accelerating a long-term nationwide decline in government support for higher education. Out-of-state students generally pay the full cost of their education, effectively subsidizing their in-state classmates.</p>
<p>Since pre-recession 2007, the share of nonresident students in the freshman class has grown considerably at several flagship universities: from 34 to 37 percent at William and Mary; from 19 to 25 percent at the University of Washington; from 43 to 49 percent at the University of Iowa; and from 35 to 44 percent at Penn State.</p>
<p>"It's a matter of fiscal realities," said Mark Emmert, president of the University of Washington. "Public universities survive on a combination of tuition revenue and state financial support. If one goes down, the other has to go up if you want to maintain your capacity."</p>