<p>North</a> Dakota Lures College Students - WSJ.com</p>
<p>Interesting article from the Wall Street Journal about how public universities in N. Dakota are attracting large numbers of out of state students with reasonable tuition rates and modest sized classes.</p>
<p>Go BISON! (NDSU) You betcha! :)</p>
<p>Seriously, aside from the freeeeezing winters, Fargo and the surrounding small towns are full of some really nice people who are very proud of that school. They have some terrific academic programs up there and the surrounding farmlands are beautiful as well. Worth looking into if you can handle the cold weather.</p>
<p>Similar discussion here on CC recently about colleges in South Dakota. The economy in the Dakotas is booming, and with an aging population they’re having trouble filling all the jobs, which they need to do to keep growth going. So it’s a conscious strategy on their part to try to attract young people from OOS by offering cheap tuition. I wish them well.</p>
<p>The article also says that N. Dakota has been intentionally putting money into their public universities as an economic development tool, while other states are slashing their funding. N. Dakota has a declining number of high school grads and a declining total population. They want to retain some of the new college grads within their borders. Also, the article says that N. Dakota has the luxury of having money to put into their universities because of oil industry revenue.</p>
<p>In addition, N. Dakota benefits from a consortium of states that offer reduced tuition to students from each other’s states. N. Dakota has been a net gainer from this process, particularly from Minnesota.</p>
<p>I wish Maine would learn from their example!</p>