<p>Instate students( their parents) have already paid into the educational system as taxpayers.
Additionally, it is assumed that they will continue to do so ( as will their parents) after college graduation.</p>
<p>International students- not so much.</p>
<p>Is it just my imagination or are state colleges more generous with merit aid to OOS students to attract them, but still get a premium, albeit lower? DD2’s stats weren’t great, but she got a few thousand dollars offered at several but nothing at Penn State or Pitt.</p>
<p>It’s called “enrollment management” and all admissions professionals take courses that cost top dollar to learn it.</p>
<p>Dad, highly depends on the state school. I have heard that Penn State is stingy with merit aid.</p>
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<p>I think a lot of people overestimate how much they have “paid into” their state’s higher education system through taxation. The Commonwealth of Virginia, for example, subsidizes public higher education to the tune of about $1.5 billion annually. Sounds like a lot of money, but in a state with a population of about 8.1 million, that works out to about $185 per person per year. And that’s an average; a lot of people pay a lot less, while some pay considerably more, and that’s assuming all taxes are ultimately paid by individuals. At a rate of $185 per person per year, a family of 3 (Mom, Dad, and Junior) would have paid a total of about $10K toward the state’s public higher education system from Junior’s birth until the time Junior reaches 18. Out-of-state and international students at UVA pay $25K more per year than Virginia residents. That’s $100K more over 4 years. So even if Mom & Dad keep ‘paying in’ for another 30 or 40 years after Junior’s college years, the amount they ‘pay in’ through taxes isn’t even going to be close to the additional amount charged to OOS and international students.</p>
<p>And remember, not all of what you ‘pay in’ is going to your kid’s college; not even close. Your 185 bucks a year is also going to train K-12 teachers and nurses and dental hygienists and others in occupations the state deems vital. It’s going to community and technical colleges to train and re-train workers with skills to match the jobs that are opening up in your state’s growing industries, something those industries need if they are to continue to grow and prosper and contribute to a healthy economy and the state’s tax coffers. Only a tiny fraction of what you ‘paid in’ is going to your state’s flagship public university. But even if you credit the entire amount to ‘prepayment’ of Junior’s higher education costs, it doesn’t come close to matching the surcharge imposed on OOS and international students. </p>
<p>Fact is, in-state students at quality public universities are getting far more than they’re paying for, and far more than they will pay for through taxation in their entire lifetimes. They’re enjoying a tremendous subsidy, only a fraction of which comes from other taxpayers. Some comes from the generosity of the university’s alums and other benefactors; some from earnings on endowment; some from intellectual property licensing fees; some from research grants snared by the university’s faculty; and some from cross-subsidization by OOS and international students who are paying much higher tuition bills.</p>