<p>top out of state public schools are starting to cost as much as private schools... but I would think the financial aid would be significantly better at the public schools for a good student (merit based).</p>
<p>What are yall's thoughts?</p>
<p>Well, it depends on the school.</p>
<p>For example, places like Washington University in St. Louis are excellent with merit based financial aid, as they can afford more than their private school counterparts.</p>
<p>The Ivy League schools are the primary schools that don't give much merit based aid and basically only go need-based.</p>
<p>Thus, it depends.
For a top student with little to no need-based aid, non-Ivy privates and top public schools would certainly have the best aid.</p>
<p>Top Public Schools aren't really going to give you anything. The public's provide for their own kids. Private schools will give you significantly more aid. A friend of mine is going to Stevens Institute of Technology and even though it is much more expensive than Virginia Tech, it was less than VT because of aid.</p>
<p>Top public schools like those in the Big Ten are not more generous. They use state funds. Texas may be more generous because it has a huge oil endowment.</p>
<p>Totally wrong, most publics reserve the vast majority of aid for in state students, it only makes sense. Top privates give the best aid, they have the largest endowments in gerenal, though some lowere ranked but good lacs, like Grinnell are also generous. Look up each schools endowment to get a feel.</p>
<p>My daughter is out of state - going to UMich - she has received very generous merit scholarships. She is thus going there cheaper than she would have at the state university in her home state (UVa). So be careful in making generalizations.</p>
<p>Generally OOS ug aid at publics is very limited and mostly loans. I'd say that is true about 90% of the time.</p>
<p>My son received merit money from Indiana- it was the top award for OOS, which I think was $7K a year. Indiana is still very reasonable for OOS., but of course my son is going somewhere astronomically expensive instead.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Totally wrong, most publics reserve the vast majority of aid for in state students, it only makes sense. Top privates give the best aid, they have the largest endowments in gerenal, though some lowere ranked but good lacs, like Grinnell are also generous. Look up each schools endowment to get a feel.
[/quote]
I disagree. While obviously public universities are meant to be cheaper for in-state residents, quite a few public universities use significant merit aid to attract academically strong students, much as many schools use large academic scholarships to attract top atheletes.</p>
<p>This person is talking about merit aid. This isn't need-based financial aid with loans and such where private institutions would be significantly more able to meet the obligation.</p>
<p>However, many private schools either through mandate (such as the Ivy League) or by virtue of having so many strong students anyway, don't give merit aid--or at least not significant enough to make any real difference.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Generally OOS ug aid at publics is very limited and mostly loans. I'd say that is true about 90% of the time.
[/quote]
Again, merit-based aid. I haven't to this day heard of merit-based loans.</p>
<p>I think most of the state schools giving merit aid to OOS are the second tier ones trying to attract better students. They know who they are.</p>