So, my family makes 45k annually. I live in Portland, Oregon. I used a financial calculator for University of Virginia and University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. UVA estimates to make me pay only 4k annually and Chapel Hill estimates to make me pay only 3k. Is this accurate or am I dreaming? I thought public schools never give good financial aid but these 2 public schools are giving me a lot!! Does anyone know any out of state students who went to UVA or Chapel Hill who got realllly good financial aid?
Those two are the two state schools which do give good financial aid to out-of-state students. However, they are extremely selective for this reason, since many out-of-state students apply for the few spots available to them.
Other public schools with good financial aid to out-of-state students tend to limit it to specific categories like only for the lowest income or embedded merit or preferential packaging for high stats out-of-state students. Some public schools do give large merit scholarships to out-of-state students (e.g. http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ and http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/ ).
Those two schools commit to meet need for all students, not just in-state. They are the only ones that do, although Michigan apparently has made some moves in this area as well recently. But… that makes them VERY competitive for admission of OOS students.
ohh ok thanks guys!
And there’s Alabama: http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.html
Since UVA and UNC only admit a small number of OOS students, and those who are admitted at top students, their FA has a “merit component”.
Your chances of being admitted are slim. Better to apply to schools where you have better chances for admittance and aid.
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Weighted GPA: 4.2-4.25
Unweighted GPA: 4.0
Class rank: 1/630 rank (ranked by UW GPA)
SAT: 1930 (not submitting SAT for Wake Forest)
(CR: 600, M: 670, W: 660)
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@mom2collegekids so do you think I’ll have a better chance wih private schools rather than public schools? And why do public schools only accept a small number of OOS? Are they bound by law to do so? Thanks.
Some publics do have state laws in place restricting the amount of oos students. Mostly they get money from taxpayers to educate the children of state taxpayers. You might have a better chance at UVA, they are looking for high performing low income students and they have taken some OOS students that are URM through the Questbridge program, I have noticed.
Oh ok thanks!
We had a good result with the net price calculator for University of New Hampshire.
State flagships accept fewer OOS than in-state students, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the number of OOS students is “small”. According to another thread, in 2013 UVa accepted over 24% of OOS applicants, or nearly 5000 of them (http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-virginia/1495106-out-of-state-acceptance-rate-for-uva.html). 24% is a higher acceptance rate than you’d get from the Ivies or most other top research universities and LACs. 5K is more students than the total undergraduate enrollment at Dartmouth.
Here’s a listing (unfortunately, a little dated) of the percentage of OOS students at many state universities:
http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2009/11/19/looking-for-an-out-of-state-public-university
Some of these schools enroll over 20K undergraduates. A school like the University of Minnesota - TC would enroll more OOS undergraduates (~31% of 30K undergrads) than the total undergraduate enrollments of many top-ranked private colleges.
Unfortunately, the Common Data Set does not break out admission stats for OOS students at public colleges. If your scores are a little below average for UVa, but you rank first in your class, I would think an application would be worth a shot if you like that school.
UVA, UNC, & U of A are known for OOS aid.
U of A might give good merit (and I don’t know which U of A you mean) but they don’t give good FA.
At one time U of Arkansas (Fayetteville) offered very generous financial aid/grants to some out-of-state students. A friend who attended national conferences with a UA official told me that the UA Admissions Office offered a nearly full ride package to an URM from the Pacific Northwest for this purpose.
Maybe we are saying the same thing. FA is based on need (which is usually only offered to in-state students) as compared to merit aid. We know that Bama offers merit aid to OOS kids. I think Arizona and Arkansas may as well.
Here is a link to the University of Arkansas Scholarships awarded based on merit:
http://catalog.uark.edu/undergraduatecatalog/financialaidandscholarships/scholarshipsfornewstudents/
One of my pet peeves about this is the lack of transparency regarding what it takes to get these awards. While National Merit students are a bit more clear-cut, basically, only the $4,000 scholarship per year gives the necessary minimum ACT scoreof 27 and even then those scholarships are listed as “competitively awarded.” This is unlike schools such as Alabama that are cut and dry on how much is defintely going to be given in merit aid based on a chart of stats.
From what I have seen over the last several years, I can tell you that the Chancellor’s Scholarship at the University of Arkansas requires a 32 on the ACT.
The Fellowships are pretty competitive.
There is favorable treatment to nearby surrounding states for a reduced OOS tuition cost, but this does not apply to students from all states.
My ds had a classmate with great grades but only a 29 ACT. It was cheaper for this student to attended Florida State University OOS than the U of A in-state as s/he was given more merit money at FSU.
As far as need-based aid goes, I don’t think Arkansas does anything extraordinary, but I suppose I could be mistaken. I think it’s just the usual Stafford loans, Pell Grants, and/or College Plus loans.