<p>There are public schools with low OOS tuition and which also offer merit $ for their OOS students. My son attends one, in Montana. Montana is (I believe) the only state with a budget surplus, and its governor already publicly announced there will be no tuition increase for at least the next 2 years. My son also received $4,000/year for 4 years scholarship based on his SAT scores. All told, we’re paying $6,000 a year less than in-state at University of Coloarado/Boulder, and $8,000 a year less than in-state at Colorado State. The cost of living in Montana is lower than in Colorado, so we’ll save even more when he moves out of the dorms. </p>
<p>It CAN be done. That said, the school my son attends does not have the international renown of a UC-Berkeley, UCLA or even, for that matter, University of Colorado-Boulder. I believe that as long as Cal and UCLA remain the academic powerhouses they are today, there will be lots of candidates willing to pay their tuitions, even if it goes up to $22k/year.</p>