I’m looking around for safeties close to home I can get cheaper tuition at through reciprocity programs. It’s tough because I really value racial diversity and the Midwest ain’t it for that. But I’m willing to overlook that somewhat if y’all can really sell me on some schools. My base requirements are an Environmental Studies (or Science/Conservation) major and Japanese classes/minor available. I already know plenty about U of MN TC, UW Madison, UI Urbana-Champaign, and UMich. These schools are selective enough they often are exceptions to reciprocity. Tell me the good things about less well-known universities!
Are you referring to tuition reciprocity through MSEP?
https://msep.mhec.org/
If so, then I’d suggest plugging in your state and other information.
You might get 40-50 results.
You could winnow them down by cross-referencing the list against various environmental science/studies rankings available on the internet.
Rankings alone are never the last word in school/program quality, but can be helpful in building an initial list if you don’t have any other starting point. Once you get a list of intersecting schools you’d also need to check for Japanese and other features you want.
“Cheap tuition” means different things to different families. What is your family budget? What are your stats? Do you qualify for need based aid or just looking for merit?
@momofsenior1 I’m in MN, so I qualify for greatly reduced out-of-state tuition in WI, ND, Indiana, MO, Kansas, etc. Iowa and South Dakota are exceptions.
I’m definitely going for some merit aid since my stats are higher than average for public. 3.98 UW GPA, I think my ACT will end up being in the 30-32 range, my ECs are theater and starting environmental club.
We haven’t gotten the tax returns back to do full Net Price Calculators but I’m hoping for final COA to be under $15K a year. That will probably be difficult without merit aid even with tuition reciprocity. So yes, I’m definitely shooting for merit aid because based on my research out of state students don’t get need based aid.
Have you considered the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay?
Estimated COA for Minnesota residents is $16,488. With a little “self help” (student loans / employment) you’d be under your target cost.
Heard good things about Truman State
Check out Kansas State and KU. Both have Japanese minors and KU has environmental studies and KSU has environmental science. Typically, the science program is very different from the studies program. For some students, KSU can be a bargain.
Congratulations on your hard work and success!
I also thought of KU and KSU. State flagships, research universities, great college towns. They offer merit aid to OOS students. You can research that. Your grades are good, with a high ACT score you would be eligible for aid at the University of New Mexico. It’s more of an outside-the-box school for you (not Midwest), but it would be more diverse (I believe, you could research). It is an urban school.
https://scholarship.unm.edu/scholarships/non-resident.html
If you do get a high ACT score you can check out Miami of Ohio. It has your majors, though environmental science requires a co-major. Also a great school, beautiful campus. It provides a simple merit aid chart that you could use. Note these show the numbers where you are qualified, aid is not guaranteed. It’s very helpful to apply early to receive merit aid, which is also true of other schools. They super-score for admission AND aid.
https://miamioh.edu/admission/merit-guarantee/
http://miamioh.edu/academics/majors-minors/majors/east-asian-lang-and-cultures.html
College costs a lot today, so it is hard for students to work to pay for school the way they could do so 30-40 years ago. Two options, I think research shows working 10 hours a week during the school year is actually optimal. Students do better academically if they do this rather than not working or working more. Also, you can’t guaranteed you’d be hired, and it obviously would not apply freshman year, but working as an RA often means free housing, which can cut cost a lot, especially if you are getting merit aid to help with tuition.
Good luck!
Don’t rule out South Dakota because of a lack of reciprocity. USD and SDSU are both pretty inexpensive even as an OOS student. You likely won’t find Japanese and your diversity might tend to be limited, but the rest lines up pretty well.
If the $15k is a hard ceiling then start hunting for merit aid and work back towards your core requirements like diversity, ES or Japanese. That means the usual suspects like UA-Huntsville and other places that chase scores. If you’re a National Merit Scholar, for example, Arizona State will cost $16k or so. Check out the big Merit thread:
They are relatively inexpensive for OOS students, but there is also a separate MN-SD reciprocity agreement.
https://www.sdstate.edu/admissions/cost-estimate
https://www.usd.edu/financial-affairs/business-office/tuition-and-fees/undergraduate
I want to emphasize that environmental studies and environmental science are very different. Make sure to know the details of the programs you are looking at compared to what you want to study and the career path each leads to.
Look up Environmental studies at Ohio University. They have an Environmental Studies major through their Honors Tutorial College which given your statement that you have near perfect scores you may be eligible for. If accepted you would get full tuition. The HTC is a fairly unique program which allows you to skip the usual gen ed requirements and have a lot more freedom in your curriculum. The school is in a beautiful area of Ohio and I think you might consider it a hidden gem.
https://www.ohio.edu/honors/future-students/programs/environmental.cfm