Our son was so excited about this school, a perfect fit, but the out of state cost is unbelievably high, even with being awarded the president’s award which is 9k a year. Why? What is the reason for the huge price difference for in state/out of state? We are new to this.
@ManyXsBlessed The reason is that Colorado does not fund our state schools to the level of some other states like Georgia or Indiana. MInes charges $34,020. per year for OOS tuition. For comparison Georgia Tech, a higher ranked school for most majors except maybe geology and petroleum, costs $30,900. per year for OOS tuition. I am sorry to say that as a Coloradoan, but Georgia funds their state engineering college a little bit better than Colorado does right now. But I do think Mines may be better than most flagship schools except the very best ones, for many majors. What are his other choices? Mines is really a top school and a very good size for an engineering college, with outstanding access on light rail to the city of Denver.
U of Michigan charges a WOPPING $48,598 for OOS tuition, for juniors and seniors. Housing and books are on top of that. So Colorado is not alone in raising rates for OOS, or anywhere close to the costs of U of Michigan Engineering. Note U of Michigan has a two tier price tag so freshman and sophmores pay less, but its truely a school for the wealthy today.
For the same reason that UC Davis tuition is only $14,046 for Californians like you, but $40,729 for people from out-of-state. See: https://www.ucdavis.edu/admissions/cost/
Colorado School of Mines is a state school (like the University of Colorado or Colorado State). This means that it gets a lot of financial support from the State of Colorado – which really means “Colorado taxpayers”. In return for this financial support, the Colorado taxpayers get discounted tuition. If you don’t pay state taxes in Colorado, then you don’t get the same deal.
Virtually all other state schools do exactly the same thing. Based on your other posts, it appears that you are from California. Well, California has the same two-tiered system: as a California taxpayer, you get huge tuition discounts at University of California or California State University schools. Non-Californians have to pay much more to attend state universities in California, just as non-Coloradans have to pay much more to attend state universities in Colorado.
Private schools, like Stanford or USC, don’t get state support and therefore don’t discriminate in this way; they have just one tuition rate. Unfortunately, this generally means that the tuition at private schools is high for everyone.
We are learning a lot. We have a smart kid with not-so-smart parents. We are figuring it out though, reading all the threads has helped so much. We are in CA. He has been accepted at UC Davis and UCSD as well. It’s looking like he will go to UC Davis. Thank you for being patient and kind with my ignorance. 
@ManyXsBlessed
Congratulations on your son’s acceptances. UCD and UCSD are both great options (especially at the discounted in-state tuition rate).
@ManyXsBlessed San Diego is a more high powered school than Davis for most science and engineering majors.
But Davis is very solid too. Davis is the land grant college and agricultural college for the state of California. San Diego is more of a research science and math school, with top rated biology, chemistry, and engineering. I think either of the U of Cal choices will lead to great jobs in California. I would not worry a bit about Mines, although its very good for a narrow range of majors including: mechanical engineering, geophysics, geochemistry, geology, chemical and petroleum engineering.
@Coloradomama Thank you! He chose Davis! I’m relieved it worked out this way.
Davis is much more than an agricultural college. In fact, its College of Engineering offers the most engineering majors in the UC system. As previously stated, both UCD and UCSD are great options.
I loved UC Davis–got my law degree there. My niece loved it as an undergrad a decade plus ago. It is a great U and has really built up its facilities in the decades since I attended! Congratulations to your son!
While Georgia Tech is less expensive, they give less out-of-state aid than Mines. $9000may not be as much as hoped for, but certainly takes the edge off a bit.
A few years back, I had one son get a Presidential for half of the OOS tuition from Mines. This year, another son got zip from GT (he didn’t apply to Mines due to a lack of his major, aerospace) and half of OOS tuition from Maryland.
Be careful of the UC schools, though. They may cost you as much as Mines, in the end, if it takes 5 years to get an engineering degree. UCSD is my alma mater (med school) and of course I would have loved for my eldest son to go there. But he wanted to take engineering physics, and with the general ed requirements, they told him it would likely take 5 years to do it. Now, that was four years ago and things may have changed, and your child may have more AP credits than mine did.
He did get his degree in 4 years at Mines and then went to grad school at Texas A & M.
It’s true that the 4-year graduation rates can be relatively low at UCs. However, this is true of public universities in general – including Mines.
Graduation rates for entering students in Fall 2009: 4-year and 6-year:
UC Davis: 57%, 85%
UC San Diego: 58%, 87%
Mines: 49%, 77%
These are the most recent numbers in College Navigator (it takes 6 years to determine the 6-year graduation rate, so the numbers always lag)
@PBD Georgia Tech offers a small number, about 20-40 OOS students in state tuition, and my son could not win that either. GT offers Presidential scholarships to leadership oriented students. Mines only gives $20,000 over four years to in state students, and we feel Georgia Tech is stronger overall, for many majors. GT is good deal when you compare the OOS tuition to a school like U of Michigan, or Carnegie Mellon, or any east coast private school, GT starts to look like a bargain basement price. Its about $20K per year less than private or U of Michigan.