I’ll treat! It’s the least I can do . . .
Grain Belt isn’t breaking the bank for now at least. Plus at UMN there’s at least a chance to raise a glass to a football victory on parent & family weekend.
Eventually,even with merit scholarships, UMN-TC will price itself on par with state U’s (e.g., UIUC) for OOS’ers, and then they will be educating Minnesotans exclusively. Does wonders for diversity, cross-pollination of scientific ideas and openness of mind…
Interesting prediction, @LeProfessionnel, but likely a bit pessimistic. Cross-pollination of scientific ideas is no problem in this age of the internet and easy travel. However, UIUC - since I believe you are in-state IL? - has a great advantage with at least four notable-to-excellent research institutions within a 3-hour drive. UMN only has two, and one of them is concentrated only in the health sciences. UMN could halve it’s OOS tuition, and this wouldn’t change, nor would it be able to move faculty here any more quickly. Research faculty would be primarily concerned with the graduate departments, not the undergraduate program.
Can’t answer to ethnic/racial diversity - both the state and the UMN are currently pretty low in both. However, for the most part UMN doesn’t have a huge skew between student and state demographics, the way that UIUC or UMichicagn do for some groups. UIUC in particular educates a notably higher percentage of its residents than does UMN so you would have thought they had a student population more in line with the state’s own diversity. UW-Madison is also skewed, but not as much. All in all, despite its reputation for Blond and White, the U seems to do a fair job in enrolling student populations that are representative for the state. It would surely love to do even better than that; problem is, most of the OOS kids who go there are white/European (many are/were from the suburbs of Chicago 
).
This is an interesting debate, so let me add a simple comment. My son is OOS, admitted and considering attending UMN. However, when we started looking at UMN last year, the total cost was 38K (very attractive) and now appears to have jumped to 43K for freshman starting in September. That is a very large increase. I’m not aware of other schools raising the price so much so fast, and it is a factor against my son attending.
@jimmym - they have been increasing OOS tuition 10% - 15% every year since 2015. UMN tuition for OOS was only about $21,000 a few years ago. They’ve been playing catchup. Your son’s tuition wouldn’t jump similarly for Year Two but it will increase over cost-of-living, as @illinoisx3 has been pointing out.
It’s no surprise that increases of this sort would turn off OOS’ers who otherwise would be attracted by the price. Last year enrollment from OOS fell by a few hundred. In prior years, OOS enrollment fell a tad but was more than offset with international enrollments. However, the latter category has declined at many schools the past couple of years - getting a visa is now tougher than it used to be. And selective privates have increasingly been offering institutional need-based as well as merit so are more affordable than they used to be - and you are more likely to graduate in four years which is a huge savings compared to publics. UMN has a lot to offer, but one should have very solid reasons for choosing an OOS flagship. Price, prestige, scholarships, invitation to Honors, career/grad school placement, locale - all should be on the table.
For what it’s worth, we are in IL and although daughter applied to many schools, UIUC didn’t even make the cut. We knew that in state tuition would be much higher than OOS at other equal or superior schools. With a 15K offer from MN (10K at first, just got an extra 5K from Carlson), she’d be $5-10K less per year at MN vs IL. She has 5 other good publics (IN, OH, SC, etc) that also came in under the in state IL rate. The state of IL is a financial mess and the budget crisis is surely concerning. Agree than MN OOS tuition in previous years was almost too good to be true and it does seem to make sense that they’re raising it to come closer to its “peers”.
I know this is not going to help any OOS now, but the above comment about “too good to be true” caught my attention. We were on this boat 4 years ago, and did not even think about applying to UMN (it wasn’t on our radar screen at all). One day early fall 2014, my son got invite in mail to apply for free, no essay required. So he said why not, not knowing anything about UMN. He was also named NMSF around that time, and so he applied. Sometime in November, he got big envelope with scholarships, basically making tuition and fees disappear from his expenses for all 4 years (if he is named NMF)! We could not believe it. I even called their NMF office to confirm what we saw was correct, because it sounded too good to be true. He also got great FA from our state flagship, but the overall bill was bigger than going OOS to UMN.
He eventually flew for a visit in April, and decided to attend shortly afterwards. In retrospect, he just “squeezed in” at the very last moment. Next year, the OOS tuition started going up, and the most valuable scholarships disappeared. We were so grateful! This was probably the only time in my life I can think of where “too good to be true” actually turned out to be true.
He will graduate debt-free from CSE in 3 short months. We are so grateful! There is no way he could attend today.
@doglover2001 That may be true in your situation, but it’s worth it for everyone to compare 4-year costs if you are in-state UIUC vs. OOS at Minnesota. For students starting fall 2019, you have to factor in another 10% increase at Minnesota and up to $2K CSE surcharge, while UIUC is holding tuition flat again.
For someone applying to a base resident tuition rate major at UIUC (~12K/year), the total costs are considerably cheaper than non-resident at Minnesota. In the ballpark of $32K/year at UIUC vs. $48k per year at MN after the 10% bump for students starting this fall. Engineering/Science resident tuition rate is $5k more per year at UIUC, but will be as much as $2K more at UMNTC this fall. That makes it around $37K/year at UIUC vs. roughly $50K at Minnesota next year, plus or minus as these are rough estimates based on current costs and anticipated increases. There is more savings when you consider that UIUC tuition and room&board is the same price for 4 years by law, while costs at Minnesota will increase 5.5% each year. Obviously merit awards and financial aid can make the comparison considerably different from one student to another.
My son ended up saving a little money at UIUC Engineering, though the difference wasn’t as nearly as much then as it is now. He was offered the $10K National award at Minnesota, but that was a couple years ago when non-resident tuition was considerably lower there. My daughter would have saved over $10K/year at UIUC with the merit she was offered in a base tuition rate major. She opted to go to Minnesota which was a much better fit for her, and thankfully her merit awards made it feasible for us since she liked the major in CBS much better than the one at UIUC.
The Illinois state financial situation is indeed horrible, but the UIUC system is doing pretty well. You wouldn’t even know there’s a crisis in Springfield based upon the new buildings, renovations and improvements on the Champaign-Urbana campus. Helps to have a nice endowment not operated by the state legislature.
@tallgrass, I agree with @illinoisx3: 2019-2020 Engineering tuition at UIUC and fees are about 20K (excluding health insurance). Room and board in a good dorm (Nugent) are 12K, so the total is about 32K x 4 = 128K. UMN-TC lists its NR tuition as 30.5K for 2018-19. Add 10% for 2019-2020. Add 2K for new engineering fees. Add 10K or so for room and board. 1st year = 45.5K. Assume 5.5% increase every year, total cost = 198K. Subtract 20K x 4 of scholarships (standard OOS + NMF). Total cost = 118K. Add transportation cost differential compared to UIUC for Chicagoland. Add potential uncertainty about any new additional costs at UMN-TC. Not much of a bargain - if at all…
^That scholarship estimate of $20 K is a bit generous now. But if accurate, then I’d say the two would be close enough to allow other factors to come in to come into the decision process. Both are excellent institutions. Do you prefer an urban environment with ready access to year-round opportunities at a F-500? Do you wish to stay in the Chicago area upon grad. and feel that UIUC just has an advantage there? How well does each program fare with career placement and starting salaries? These are some - I’m sure there are many more.
@tallgrass Congrats to your son…and to you!
Not sure if this is news, but just received this email:
“I am writing to share a change in the program costs for CSE. After assessing the resources needed to maintain innovative classrooms and laboratories for undergraduate students like you, we have made the decision to implement a surcharge for CSE students. There will be a $1,000 per semester tuition surcharge for all incoming CSE undergraduate students beginning fall semester 2019. Such surcharges for certain areas of study are prevalent all across the Big Ten and at other peer institutions, particularly in engineering and computer science.”
If you have the stats to qualify for the top OOS award at UMNTC and are a NMF, there’s a good chance you will get at least a departmental scholarship at UIUC, if not a university-wide one, and probably solid merit awards at many other schools as well. Merit awards and financial aid will make a huge difference in the value proposal for many students.
Published in the MN Daily on 2/12/19:
Final comment in that article was this “Our mission is to educate Minnesota students. We do not have a mission to educate non-Minnesota students,” Hsu said. “If you’re an Illinois students and if money is a concern for you, you should be going to the University of Illinois.”
I’d say I agree with that statement. When you’re a MN student looking at other states rates for OOS tuition and see that it’s $10k higher than what OOS students are paying at UMN, you’re going to question who the university is prioritizing. It’s not the UMN’s job to educate students for Illinois, that’s their own states job. If the UMB wants to help OOS students they can, but not before priotizing Minnesota students like they’re suppose to.
@Minneapple said “Our mission is to educate Minnesota students. We do not have a mission to educate non-Minnesota students,” Hsu said. “If you’re an Illinois students and if money is a concern for you, you should be going to the University of Illinois.”
This is like a slap in all current and future OOS UMN students’ face. Another reason for me to NOT consider going to UMN.
Wow, just wow. It certainly seems like UMN is not after diversity geographic or otherwise. Agreed @mwoody999 on the slap in the face of those OOS that go there. They are clearly not valued or even on the same playing field when it comes to the school’s priority. Let’s hope they change their stance
I honestly don’t see how this is different than most state flagships? My kid would have loved to apply to the music program at UIUC for example. Didn’t see how the money could end up making sense there at all as an OOS student with UMN and UW-Madison on the table. Felt like a waste of time. He did apply to some privates but they CAN at times be generous with merit.
Personally, I would LOVE to see public options more affordable for all and many more reciprocity and exchange programs available. But I can’t really fault the U of MN for doing exactly what other schools are doing. At least U of MN does have some merit available.
Applying to state flagships you aren’t a resident for is really a luxury for the rich right now. At least this is an honest quote. Better than the schools brow beating you with marketing and hoping you bring all your money to their institution.
The irony is that at many public universities, OOS and international enrollment is the cash cow that allows in-state tuition to be much lower, with minimal or no increases. Clearly, the main responsibility is to residents, but you also court top non-resident students for a variety of academic, diversity and financial reasons. Regents do get replaced, hopefully the new regents will bring some common sense, financial understanding and some much needed compassion for students (both resident and non-resident) to the board. http://www.startribune.com/next-up-at-university-of-minnesota-selection-of-four-regents-value-merit-resist-politics/506013422/