<p>
</p>
<p>Northeastmom, there's soem truth to what you say but as stated here it's an overly broad generalization. While public colleges and universities generally are obligated to meet the needs of in-state students first, the degree to which they meet the financial need of OOS students is highly variable. So do very well at it, some don't even try. Don't assume they're all alike, because they're not. </p>
<p>Nor are all private schools alike in this regard. It's really a small handful that are 100% need-blind in admissions and promise to meet 100% of demonstrated financial need---and even among those nominally in this category, their institutional calculations of what counts as "need" as well as the mix of grants, loans, and work-study used to meet it vary widely. It's better to compare actual net COA at each school carefully with specific FA offers in hand than to rely on sweeping generalizations as to the FA policies of entire categories of schools.</p>