<p>I am an incoming high school senior trying to decide on a college. It's really pretty simple. My parents would prefer for me to stay in the state of Illinois at NU or Chicago. The problem is that I would like to leave the state for a college along either coast, like UC-Berk or Columbia. I'm not too concerned with acceptance on this particular post, I'd just like to know what some of the pro's and con's are to leaving the state. Obviously I would have "better" schools available to me such as Ivies, Stanford, etc., but at what cost? And what are some other benefits? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Some of this would depend on the schools being compared - and the cost is an important component of the decision, as you already noted.</p>
<p>Pro:
Exposure to another part of the country
Increased self-reliance earlier
Possibly a better fit socially and academically
Easier to reinvent yourself when no one knows you from high school</p>
<p>Con:
No support system from immediate family - and they can’t attend your games, performances, etc…
Harder to get home for holidays/medical care/other needs
Fewer opportunities to get together with old friends from high school
Harder to maintain connections in your community - you start to feel distanced from your neighborhood, and more connected to your school.</p>
<p>From your parents perspective, there is a significantly greater chance that you might not come back to the area if you attend school elsewhere. That’s enough to make many parents place limits like ‘driving distance’ on their kids’ educational choices.</p>
<p>As a parent, the biggest issue to us with an out of state school (public) is the out of state tuition. Because we have very good instate schools, we question the value of paying out of state tuition to another state. If it’s a private school, the cost is the same whether you are instate or not.</p>
<p>Our first daughter was adamant about attending a school out of state. She is currently very happy at our state flagship.</p>
<p>Next daughter is making louder sounds about attending a school VERY FAR away. We shall see.</p>
<p>In our case an out of state university offered a better program for my D’s major and our instate (univ of MD) was harder to get into for the fall semester. My D was accepted into all of the out of state universities that she applied to but, her stats made us fairly certain that she would have only gotten spring acceptance at Maryland. Spring acceptances could take some classes in the fall but, couldn’t dorm on campus so, that meant getting an apartment. She wasn’t interested in missing out on the freshman experience.</p>
<p>Cons…</p>
<p>Out of state publics typically don’t give much need-based aid, so they can be very expensive. For instance, the UCs can be quite expensive for OOS students…costing $50k per year. </p>
<p>Travel costs can get pricey - especially at holiday time. Move in and move out costs can get pricey. </p>
<p>Pros…</p>
<p>Some OOS publics give merit scholarships for high stats and can be cheaper than instate. Our state’s flagship gets MANY students from your state (illinois) because with a tuition merit scholarship, attending our state flagship is MUCH cheaper. </p>
<p>You get to experience another part of the country…maybe a different culture and/or weather.</p>
<p>How much will your parents pay?</p>
<p>your parents may be concerned that going OOS will mean an unaffordable cost. Find out how much they’ll pay and then find schools that will meet that req’t with either merit scholarships or FA (look at the school’s NPC for FA info…and the scholarship page for merit info).</p>
<p>As far as cost and financial aid goes, run the net price calculators on each school’s web site to get an idea. Do not be surprised if out of state public schools are not very generous with need-based financial aid (although some have relatively low list prices, and some offer large merit scholarships to out of state students).</p>
<p>Since you mentioned Stanford, its need-based financial aid tends to be more generous than most schools. But getting admitted is very difficult. The same goes for Harvard and a few other similarly super selective schools. On the other hand, some private schools like New York University are known for not giving much need-based financial aid. Private schools’ cost and need-based financial aid should not differ for out of state students.</p>
<p>But you do need a safety in your application list that you are assured of getting into, assured of being able to afford, and would like to attend. In-state public schools are often good candidates to look for safeties. Some low list price out-of-state public schools or those with large guaranteed-for-stats merit scholarships may also be good candidates. Private schools are a bit less reliable since they are more likely to consider “level of interest” in admissions (i.e. they may reject or waitlist high stats applicants who appear to be using them as safeties – see section C7 of the common data set).</p>