going into senior year I need to start applying to colleges but I need help navigating. I live in Florida and plan on at least getting a masters degree or Ph.D. so I’m trying to maximize money and save where I can. do you think it is worth it to go to a college out of state considering the much larger out of state tuition?? I would love to go to a different state for undergrad but I’m not sure if it would be worth it finance wise
You mean a public university in a state in which you are not a resident? There’s no blanket answer to that question, but generally I think no, especially coming from Florida. Florida’s got some good to excellent public universities - UF and FSU being the best (and NCF if you want a small college), but there being other good choices like UCF, USF, and UNF as well as some others. The exception, of course, is if you get excellent financial aid from a great public university that makes it cheaper than a Florida state university (or maybe the same or a little more, if you prefer it).
Private universities don’t take state residency into account when it comes to tuition costs, so you could still apply to some private universities and see what kind of financial aid you get.
It depends on where you’re going. If you were heading to, say, North Carolina, then it would most certainly be worth it. But if you were going to NJ/NY/MA/CT (outside of the state flagship), then you are absolutely better off staying in Florida.
Only PUBLIC universities charge a different rate for non-residents. Many PRIVATE universities offer incredibly generous need-based FA or non-need-based merit scholarships to make them competitive or even cheaper than an in-state public.
I actually haven’t been looking into many private universities so I didn’t know that!!! Thank you!!
Look into private universities if you are trying to go out of state! For example, I was accepted to the University of Oregon (public out-of-state) with zero financial aid and a private university, Wofford College with over $30,000 in financial aid before scholarships.
There are many public univs that will give merit scholarships for stats …so that may cover the OOS portion.
Privates cost a lot more, but sometimes give good financial aid if you qualify.
You need to ask your parents how much they’ll pay. If they’re expecting you to use Bright Futures to pay a portion of your tuition, then they may balk at pay more for elsewhere.
There are also some public universities that do give need-based FA to OOS students (UMich, UVA, UNC), and a numver that give generous merit money to high-stats OOS students (full tuition st Bama).
What’s your budget? Stats?
OOS is worth applying ONLY if you like the OOS schools better/if they are better.
I still think that in-state is the better value majorty of the time.
Who knows, you might get good financial aid from OOS.
NCF students win an insanely high number of prestigious awards for such a tiny school and places a good number of grads in to grad schools. Little wonder, as the experience there is kind of like grad school.
Of course, that depends on the state in which one resides.
There are many merit scholarships available for high-achieving students at different universities, some covering close to a full ride. In general it is good to have money saved up if you are interested in a graduate level or higher degree, but that doesn’t mean you have to necessarily limit yourself to in-state options.
Check out here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html#latest. In the first link, there are some examples of the schools I mentioned that may offer you a scholarship to study at their institution.
Might as well apply and see how much aid they will give. Who knows, maybe you will get lucky. You don’t loose anything other then the application fee.
I wouldn’t attend an out-of-state public if you’re from Florida.
Private schools usually give more merit/financial aid, with a few exceptions (UAlabama, Temple).