Study Reveals Which States Have Highest, Lowest In-State Tuition

A new report outlines the states where public colleges cost the most, and the least. https://www.collegeconfidential.com/articles/tuition/

From the article linked by the linked article:

10 most expensive: NH PA VT MA SC OH CO VA CT SD
10 least expensive: WV NM AK NY IN UT CA NC WA TX

The rankings appear to be based on average net price (e.g. $10,389 for WV, $22,090 for NH). However, average net price could be affected by student SES demographics, so that two colleges with similar price and financial aid policies may have different average net prices if one has students from poorer families than the other.

The main campus of UNH - Durham, undergrad tuition & room/board:

                           NH Resident     Non-Resident

Tuition & Fees $18,499 $33,879
Room & Board* $11,580 $11,580
Total $30,079 $45,459

*Room & Board amount is based on double occupancy room and core meal plan

https://admissions.unh.edu/tuitionfees

Hat tip to the big states that are still shouldering the cost to educate huge populations of in-state students: NY, CA, and TX. Those three all have other mammoth, expensive issues pressing in on them (eg large scale poverty, medical insurance and primary education costs) that require a ton of money and yet they’re still making post-secondary affordable. There’s a bunch of political mud flung about these days (CA is full of loons, TX is all about guns and arresting immigrants, etc) but they should be recognized for not letting any of that red/blue stuff interfere with stepping up and writing the checks in an age when many states with similar resources are not.

Smaller states doing the right thing are of course wonderful and should be recognized and whatever, but the scale of providing health care to an extra ten million people (for example) is orders of magnitude larger than university costs. It’s hard to stand firm when money gets tight, and that is serious money. (States of population #1, 2, 4, 9, 13 are doing this, while #5, 7 and 12 aren’t.)

Edit: @ucbalumnus 's point reinforces this, as the EFC ignores the higher cost of living in some of these places (NY, CA) and that makes it even harder for folks to afford school.

That feel when you live in New Hampshire and UNH is your one safety school

Looking at the price of Tuition & Fees (TF), but ignoring Room & Board (RB), is like booking a vacation based on airfare without considering the cost of hotels and car rental. For example:

  • UT is the 6th cheapest on the list. However, when considering TF & RB it is actually the cheapest at $20,418.
  • CA is the 7th cheapest on the list. However, when considering TF & RB it is $28,058, which is more expensive than MA, which is the 4th most expensive on the list.

I think this list would only be useful if it was resorted to show the full cost of TF & RB, which would probably show that UT is #1 and CA is #48 when it comes to overall costs. Right now it looks like UT is #6 and CA is #7.

Even though the title of the article has tuition in it, the article is really about lowest Net Price which includes Room, Board and Fees.

@Erin’sDad That’s a good point. I guess the article does make sense for someone that expects to pay the average Net Price. If you don’t qualify for financial aid, it makes sense to look at the Total Price.

Wyoming isn’t listed and its instate tuition is under $5000. It is usually ranked either #1 or #2 for lowest instate tuition. Room and board also low; the RB for my Wyoming daughter was $5000 less than for her sister at another college with a similar COL

It flattens out pretty quickly: while the ends are $12k apart the middle 30 states only span about $4k.

1 NH $22089
11 AL $17059
21 MI $15047
31 MT $14012
41 TX $12837
50 WV $10389

A large majority of students who attend the CSUs in California live at home.

Knowing what PA is like, I feel for NH. With PA, one also can’t get a superb engineering degree at our basic state schools. Penn St is considerably more expensive and well known for being stingy with aid.

Two of my three lads had their least expensive options come from private schools. The third would have been less expensive at a state school (stats weren’t as high), but none had the major he wanted.

Those of you in good education states - enjoy!

As a NJ resident, where is NJ on the list? I thought we were near the top for most expensive?! NH, PA and NJ or so I thought ?

It would also be interesting to see this comparison for each of the state flagships, as those appear to often be more expensive than the average.

I believe these are for the flagships. If not, Colorado’s numbers are way off since Boulder is a lot more expensive than other state schools, and these numbers seem to be about right for CU.

For the least expensive, they don’t include WY, ND, SD. Maybe they required a certain size, but UVM is the same size as Wyo. Those are 3 of the cheapest flagships.

SD is actually the 10th “most expensive” in the list. But note that the list is based on average net price, not list price tuition.

Surprised that Arizona did not make the lowest cost list.

@3sonsmom NJ schools all give merit, so a student with decent stats easily gets under $20k/year.

@NJWrestlingmom I think I’ll go look at their 2018 TCNJ acceptance letters. They aren’t attending but I’ll see what was offered. I still thought NJ was in top 5 most expensive.

I find that list odd. What do you think they mean by net price?