<p>hawkette, not to belabor the UC COA point, but it bears mentioning that the cost of living adds a LOT to the expense of the UC’s, at least at the “top tier”.</p>
<p>From my earlier link</p>
<p>At UC Berkeley
Total Non-Resident Budget
on campus $50,982<br>
off campus $46,264<br>
with relatives $41,804</p>
<p>At UC Davis, though tuition is higher it comes out to “only”</p>
<p>Total, non-CA Resident<br>
$45,619, $42,329 , and $39,444 , respectively</p>
<p>My child wants a large school (>10000) with big school spirit in a rural area. In-state her choices were UVA, James Madison, VTech(first choice). Old Dominion, VCU, George Mason were too urban/suburban for her. Unfortunately the admissions for her in-state choices are too competitive for her. She is a hard worker but her grades and scores will not get her admitted to her three instate choices.</p>
<p>So we must look out of state. There are some out-of-state publics that we feel she has a decent chance at. (West Virginia, Ohio University, Clemson, University of South Carolina, Indiana University) The cost of attendance at most of these schools is less than it would be for a private college. </p>
<p>We are also looking closely at the 4 year graduation rate and retention rate at our candidate schools. We cannot afford more than 8 semesters at an out-of-state school. And some of the out-of-state publics have a decent 4 year grad rate/retention. Our child could get accepted at VCU(in state) but its 4 year grad rate is a miserable 24%. Her counselor thinks she has a good chance at Clemson with a much better 50% 4 year grad rate. And we believe Clemson would offer her a better education than VCU, Old Dominion, and Mason.</p>
<p>^Which is why my son ultimately did not apply to Berkeley.</p>
<p>The pros and cons of applying OOS public have to do with the price/value relative to the student’s own state flagship in-state. In Dad II’s case, that’s Ohio State. To help him the most, it should probably be framed relative to an in-state Ohio State education.</p>
<p>Dad II, is your son looking at the OOS publics that are high on the prestige scale, such as Berkeley or Michigan, or would he consider the OOS publics such as Alabama which would be falling all over themselves to give money to a student such as your son? Only can you decide whether prestige or availability of money is the deciding factor. But be forewarned, you’re not going to find high-prestige and high-throwing-money-to-OOS-kids in the same package. Which I know is what you wanted to find!</p>
<p>W&M is a deal at $30k compared to peers Georgetown, Davidson, Haverford, Brown.</p>
<p>There’s always a prestige factor that may be ill-placed. It’s the ‘grass is always greener’ philosophy.</p>
<p>As a Connecticut resident in the dark ages I didn’t have UConn high on my list because “anyone can get in there.” Instead, I wanted UMass or UNH. I was accepted at all three. Upon visiting, the UMass and UNH in-state kids I met were amazed I would choose their school over UConn … because they all wanted to go OOS to UConn. As they saw it, “anyone can go to UMass/UNH”.</p>
<p>Dad11: I may have missed a thread where you discussed your childs qualifications.
With my 2, we have taken the OOS Public route…but the scenario at both schools fit their needs…both strong students who got much merit aid.D attended Arizona State (Honors College,School of Music for flute performance).D got their scholarship for NMF which amounted to tuition plus some coverage for room/board. Graduated in 4 years with a minor thrown in, plus a summer honors only study abroad.
S is currently at U South Carolina,Honors College,Sports Management major, with multiple scholarships, one for NMF (called the Lieber there) and one called the McNair, which is their highest level of OOS Scholarship…requires a separate application and interview.USC might be unique in that it lets you “stack” the scholarship money up to the Cost of Attendance… so he’s eligible for both and also has a departmental one which he applied for separately as well. His tuition,room and board and books are all covered,plus the McNair gave him a laptop when he enrolled.He will graduate after an extra summer semester but thats b/c his major requires an internship.
Both schools fit our kids needs and the Honors College setting makes it a viable alternative.
By the way, if you are concerned about outcome, D is now a 5th year PhD at a top 25 with full funding.Her group of undergrad friends have gone on to law,medical ,pharmacy,dental,engineering ,physical therapy advanced degrees.S is a senior so his outcome with friends is yet to be determined.
By the way we are native New Yorkers and did not consider our in state publics,except for a fleeting glance at the State U which specializes in music (near the Canadian border,much too cold and small).</p>
<p>As stated above, it varies greatly based on the state and school.</p>
<p>My son got into UT-Austin out of state w/some, but not much merit $. Also into PS, U of Ill & U of Pitt w/zero merit $ – all averaged about $42k when you added in room and board (ouch).</p>
<p>Then again, he got lots of merit $ at a southern OOS public where he ended up going.</p>
<p>So…it does depend on the school…</p>
<p>i plan on applying to U Alabama. Down there, I am being given full tuition. My In-state publics Pitt and Penn State epecially, won’t give me a dime. And i have a 34 ACT and a 4.0…PA is just crappy with money, so we go elsewhere. Plus, PSU instate is 14k/year for tuition. States like Utah, Alabama, Minnesota, and such aren’t really more</p>
<p>Pizzagirl: “But be forewarned, you’re not going to find high-prestige and high-throwing-money-to-OOS-kids in the same package.”</p>
<p>NOT necessarily! U of Illinois offers pretty good merit scholarships to OOS, and is an extremely high-ranking Engineering & Computer Science school. </p>
<p>For instance.</p>
<p>And isn’t the grass-is-greener thing funny? In Ohio, kids from Cleveland want to go to Cincinnati, and vice versa. Sometimes you just want to get out of town, or out of state. And you don’t want to feel like college is high school again, with many of the same people, so you go to another city and meet some new people.</p>
<p>The big thing to look for with OOS public universities, often if you get a certain amount of merit awards (sometimes pretty low) they will then give you in-state tuition. U of South Carolina and Texas were 2, but there were others. When you add that in, the cost drops dramatically. OOS U of SC became cheaper than in-state schools.</p>
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<p>True. If you qualify for good need-based financial aid you may be better off at one of the more generous privates.</p>
<p>OTOH if you do not qualify for need-based financial aid and are going to end up paying full sticker price no matter what, then OOS publics can be a great option. For example my D will apply to UMich as an OOS. It is the safest college on her list and also the one with the lowest out-of-pocket cost for our family. They might even give her some merit aid. I see only pros and no cons.</p>
<p>yorkyfan - this is off track a bit, but I’m confused. I thought scores were higher for Clemson than either JMU or VaTech. A friend of my D applied there and she was under the impression it was harder to get in there than to either of the Virginia schools.</p>
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<p>Exactly right. We’ll also be full-pays. For my D, Michigan OOS would be $8,000 cheaper than her favorite private, a very substantial difference. And Michigan’s at the high end of publics for OOS students.</p>
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<p>I don’t know about “most” publics but at many of the top publics this certainly is not true. The online edition of US News has pretty detailed stats on this. At Michigan, for example, 35% of OOS students receive need-based aid at an average aid award of $20,522. In addition, 47% of OOS students receive non-need-based aid at an average award of $9,870. I’d say don’t be thrown off track by individual anecdotes about how much aid so-and-so’s S or D got or didn’t get. Michigan clearly doesn’t have enough money to give need-based or non-need-based aid to everyone—but they do manage to meet 90% of student financial need, higher than the vast majority of publics and a good many privates. Individual FA awards will nonetheless vary, partly by how much they want the particular student. You won’t know what’s being offered until it’s offered.</p>
<p>
Not sure what is minimal to you, but the in state tuition at Umich for a freshman at LS&A for 2009-10 is $11,470. Out of State is $34,748. That sure isn’t minimal to me.</p>
<p>3bm103 - You are referring to UMich, I believe? The poster was referring to UMinn.</p>
<p>University of MN instate tuition- $11,542, OOS- $15,542
Difference-$4000</p>
<p>Oops. Sorry. I must have been reading too quickly.</p>
<p>Re: “The big thing to look for with OOS public universities, often if you get a certain amount of merit awards (sometimes pretty low) they will then give you in-state tuition.”</p>
<p>We forewarned – sometimes this in-state tuition rate doesn’t come automatically – you might have to apply and the # of offers can be capped. My son got a merit scholarship at UT Austin, but it was too late in the game – the slots had already been filled for in-state-tuition rates, there were a limited number. Admins who got to know him advocated on his behalf, but there were a set number – no go.</p>
<p>This argues for applying early & exploring scholarship options early, also.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most valuable thing I learned from CC during my DDs’ searches was that each college search and selection is a very different journey. Individual outcome depends on the desires of each student, financial contribution ability of the family, stats and academic interest area. For us, OOS publics exceeded our expectations and will allow the girls to continue well past their undergraduate degree without worrying about crushing debt. They were offered at least full tuition, room & board at several OOS public and private institutions. Under the direction of many wonderful CCers, we drilled down to the honors college and departmental level of many, many institutions (public & private). Our experience: OOS public institutions and privates were much less expensive than our flagship and offered fantastic opportunities in their academic areas of interest. </p>
<p>Try to keep an open mind, go beyond the rankings, evaluate individual departments and get ready for a lot of research and hard work (student & parent). The people here on CC offer a wealth of knowledge and experience. Amazing!</p>