I have narrowed my college choices down to two colleges. Purdue University to Michigan State University. I want to decide as early as possible, so I can get housing settled in the best dorm for me at either university. I am actually an international student (South Korea) so I have to pay an out of state tuition, or international student tuition, for either Purdue or MSU. However, my parents are able to pay for either of them. The reason I chose MSU as one of the final choices is that I can pay “in-state tuition” after my freshmen year at MSU. According to MSU’s regulations for qualifying for In-State Tuition, a student who has attended for at least three years an accredited Michigan high school, and this is my fourth year at my high school. Based on this information, I have to pay $51,068 for my freshmen year and pay $24,000 for my following next years. On the other hand, if I go to Purdue University, I would pay $41,834 for my four years. As I calculated all of costs for tuition, fees, room, and everything, I would have to pay $167,336 for Purdue and $122,762 for MSU. If I go to MSU, I can save $44,574…
In fact, MSU is not a top choice for me because I always wanted to live in a different state and meet new people. However, I don’t really want to pay more tuition at college in a different state for this reason… I would study Marketing at either school, and both of these colleges would provide great programs and internships. As I researched about Purdue and MSU, I realized that MSU is widely known for its Agriculture and Natural resources and Hospitality business, while Purdue is widely known for Engineering programs. How do these two business schools compare? Is one significantly better than the other or are they both a bit above average but not amazing? Also, what are some pros of these two different business schools? Finally, what would you do if you were in my situation?
Thanks for reading my post and sorry for any grammatical errors.
I think you misread the regulations: You should pay in-state tuition for ALL of your years at MSU: That would make the price differential $96K vs $167K, and I think for $71K less I would attend MSU. You should be classified as an in-state student from the start.
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II. Establishing Eligibility through Michigan High School Attendance and Graduation.
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Students who meet all of the following three (3) requirements will be eligible for in-state tuition status:
Attend an accredited Michigan high school for three (3) years;
Graduate from an accredited Michigan high school, or obtain a Michigan general Educational Development High School Equivalency Certificate (GED); and
Start their education at the University within forty (40) months of high school graduation or receipt of a GED.
Students are eligible to receive in-state tuition under this section regardless of whether they are domiciled in Michigan, residents of Michigan, or citizens of the United States.
Michigan State is plenty good at engineering…You will do fine with an MSU engineering degree.
And if you were hoping to meet different people & experience a different culture at Purdue, you would be disappointed…No significant difference between the people & cultures in the states of Michigan & Indiana.
So, there is really no reason to pay all that extra money for a Purdue degree.
I would recommend MSU over Purdue based on cost alone. If the costs were reversed I’d recommend Purdue. While I believe anytime you get 30 plus thousand college age undergraduates together there will be plenty of partying I’ve never heard Purdue referred to as a “party school”. I wouldn’t base my decision on that.