<p>To combat declining enrollments, the flagship campus of the University of Minnesota is planning to sharply reduce fees for out of state students:</p>
<p>"In California, there isn't enough room in universities for all the kids who want to go to college. And in Florida, community colleges have started offering four-year degrees to expand the capacity of higher education. Would some of those students come to the University of Minnesota if they didn't have to pay much more than Minnesotans do?</p>
<p>That's the experiment the U is likely to pursue beginning in fall 2008. Officials are proposing to dramatically cut undergraduate nonresident tuition to attract more students from around the nation. Last year, nonresident tuition and required fees on the Twin Cities campus were $21,040, compared with $9,410 for Minnesota students. If the proposed change had been in effect, nonresidents would have paid only $4,000 more per year than Minnesota residents."</p>
<p>And just to put things in context a little more, the Univ of MN currently has reciprocity agreements with Wisc, and the Dakotas which are the top 3 states they enroll OOS students from (although not with its other neighboring state Iowa, which is why those enrollment numbers are low). I believe that part of their plan is to cancel the existing reciprocity agreements and just have one uniform OOS rate, partly due to the fact that under the current plan tuition is cheaper for Univ of Wisc students attending the Twin Cities campus than it is for Minnesota's own students.</p>
<p>a) align the tuition charged Wisconsin students (who currently pay THEIR lower in-state tuition rate at the U of MN) under the current reciprocity agreement with the tuition charged other students </p>
<p>and </p>
<p>b) to improve the quality of the enrolled students at the U of MN by having a larger national draw. </p>
<p>It will be interesting to see how this works out in practice. The overwhelming likelihood is that my oldest son, and perhaps eventually all of my children, will do the last two years of high school as PSEO students at the U of MN, my alma mater, so anything that brings more diverse students there is all to the good, in my opinion.</p>
<p>What an interesting idea! Minnesota has some unique circumstances that make this more feasible there than elsewhere, but my sense is that this will catch people's imaginations. The combination of a Big 10 school, with a decent campus in the middle of a large, attractive city, and good academics at a low cost will not be so hard to market.</p>
<p>
[quote]
In California, there isn't enough room in universities for all the kids who want to go to college.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Interesting experiment, but the above sentence is just plain false. The University of California offers a spot (somewhere in the system) to all minimally-qualified applicants (minimal = 3.0 gpa + test scores). The Cal State colleges essentially guarantee acceptance to local residents who apply on a timely basis.</p>
<p>The real question is whether the Twin Cities is more attractive than say, UC Irvine or Riverside -- trading the weather for the Big 10.</p>
<p>Yes, I have heard that at least one UC campus still had space after the May 1 national reply date. Trade-offs like this do get interesting when in-state students are comparing the subsidized list price of their own state flagship to an out-of-state flagship.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"In California, there isn't enough room in universities for all the kids who want to go to college."<br>
Interesting experiment, but the above sentence is just plain false<<</p>
</blockquote>
<br>
<p>To make this statement true the reporter should have said that in California there isn't enough room in the <em>flagship</em> state universities. I think there are almost always unfilled slots at say UC Riverside or UC Merced but almost never at UC Berkeley or UCLA. By contrast, this Minnesota program is designed to boost enrollment at the state's flagship campus.</p>
<p>Wow, I think that once the news gets out, there will be many many more apps from OOS students. I think that this is an excellent, exciting deal for OOS students, esp. those who come from states where instate costs exceed 20,000 per year. Thanks for posting.</p>
<p>I just looked briefly at the CB website to look at UM costs. Frankly, they probably have priced themselves to a point at around 28,000 for R&B and tuition for OOS (not including living, book and transportation expenses), where many students can just go ahead and pay for a private school if they willing and have the means to pay 28k/year. By decreasing COA to about 20-21k , they make themselves somwhat of an attractive option to some OOS students who would like to get out of dodge for college.</p>
<p>Several of the smaller Wisconsin campuses noted a loss of OOS students when rate went up to around $20K tuition. They have backed that down a few thousand dollars and I think gained students.</p>
<p>oh I dunno, token, if those arctic glaciers and icebergs start to melt, we've still got that big - I mean, Great - lake to worry about, although I suspect Wisc, Mich (Ohio, Penn...?) might be effected worse than us. Of course, a few less competitors would sure help boost OOS enrollment! ;)</p>