The three schools I’m torn between are Minnesota Twin Cities, UT Austin, and UWash. I’ve picked all three of them because they’re highly ranked in my intended major (Economics), located in urban areas, and because my SAT scores and GPA are fairly above their averages (I know this isn’t a free ticket in but I’m being optimistic here). My SAT is a 1500 and GPA is 4.0 UW, so I should be okay. So which one should I go with? Atmosphere, academic quality, opportunities for internships/study abroad, and safety are all important factors. I’m out of state for all of them so I know that they’re not the best schools in terms of money, but my state schools really suck and my family (yes I’ve talked to my parents) can pay the OOS prices. Right now I’m just gonna go with the one that offers me the best merit aid (yes I know it’s rare for OOS), but other than that is there anything that separates one from the others?
Is Minnesota or Texas your home state? Where do you plan to live after graduation? Is is a 15K difference total or per year?
UMN’s out of state students are mostly from Wisconsin.
- I said I'm OOS for both
- No idea
- Per year
I think UT costing $60,000 more is reason enough to prefer Minnesota/have it as a goal. It seems that you like them equally and any perceived differences, to you, are pretty small. So to me, it makes sense not to expend too much energy trying to justify why I should spend more money when I can spend less and go to a place I like just as much.
UT’s pretty difficult for OOS students to get into because of the top 8-10% admissions policy in Texas. That’s why Texas has so few OOS students. For that reason alone, it might be better to aim for Minnesota. UMN has way more OOS students, although I’m willing to bet that the majority of them are from Wisconsin, North Dakota, or South Dakota - who get discounted tuition at Minnesota due to their tuition reciprocity agreement.
Also, can your family afford full pay at a public university in a different state? Most states save their best financial aid for their own state’s students.
UT is a fantastic school, but worth 60k more? Probably not.
The main benefits of UT over Minnesota are the weather, the city of austin, the prestige, and that it is walking distance to the TX capital which could offer you some cool internships as a poli. sci. major.
UT is extremely difficult to get into as an OOS student; it is >90% Texas residents. I’m not sure which kind of diversity you’re referring to, but it’s not state diversity.
Are you admitted to UT already?
Who is paying the extra $15K per year? Do your parents say they can easily pay it?
Minnesota is very strong in Econ and you can take the light rail to the Capitol in St Paul.
Can your family comfortably (no hardship, no loans) handle the $15k/year difference. If not then UMN is the obvious answer. If the money is a non-issue then it is personal preference.
As you are a junior note the fact that UT is very difficult to get into from OOS so this isn't an actual question anyway. You need to know the stats of OOS applicants, not instate (so hit the UTA forum). UT is to be looked at as a real reach school for you because of the limits on OOS students.
Unless you are NMF you aren't likely to get merit from Uminn and for sure there is no money for you at UT. It is not any kind of tossup though, UMINN is probably a safety for you as full pay OOS. Note Uminn is planning to increase tuition over the coming years.
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Minnesota is likely to be cheapest. UT is hard to get into, even with good stats.
Last I checked, Minnesota’s COA for OOS students was about $37k per year, which is lower than most good state flagships.
Other than cost, you should think about the environments, which are quite a bit different.
UMinn econ is way better than UT. For poli sci also edge UMinn. For college feel UT hard to beat.
What is your home state?
Most of the full money paying students at UT are engineering majors who like the rank for many of the engineering majors. The best liberal arts program at UT is considered to be Plan II honors which may be worth the OOS fees. Just for doing a standard major, I am not so sure.
UMN has various merit scholarships for OOS which will decrease the fees and UT offers no merit money based on grades/scores.
Basically my two top realistic choices are these two. They’re similar in everything that matters to me: size, location, academics (intended major is poli sci/econ), study abroad, political climate, both out of state, etc. They both look like fantastic schools that I’d be happy going to. Really the only thing separating the two is cost, which is important. UT is about 15k more than UMN, which obviously is significant. Is there anything that UT has that makes it worth the extra money? I know it’s ranked higher and is slightly more prestigious, but like I said there’s not a huge difference between the two. Also from the reviews I’ve read, UT seems much more impersonal with its administration but I’d have to imagine UMN is similar because of its similar size. Other than that, UT is more diverse which is important to me, but at the same time UMN has much more OOS students. It’s really a tossup, can anyone who knows more about these places shed some light?