Just looked at the Cost of Attendance statistics posted at financialaid.tamu.edu/Cost. For 2017-2018, Non-Resident Undergraduate Tuition & Fees are estimated to be $36,962 vs. $30, 208 for 2016-2017. Is this right? A +22% increase vs. last year???. (Resident Tuition & Fees went up less than 2% year over year) We are OK residents and our son will be majoring in Visualization. Like most, he got $0 merit scholarship money (despite 31 ACT, 4.0 GPA and top 10% class rank) so no OOS tuition waiver for us. For those in the know, surely an increase year over year this large is not typical–or is it? We’re trying to decide the Fixed vs. Variable Tuition question. We’re definitely choosing the Fixed option if these kind of huge OOS increases are possible going forward. Does anyone know why the huge increase this year? What’s behind this? Those of us OOS are really getting hammered financially if these increases are correct. Thanks.
For anyone that’s interested…Found this news from February 2017
“The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents unanimously approved an increase in tuition costs for out-of-state students at Texas A&M University during its meeting Thursday, meaning an estimated 350 incoming undergraduate students this fall could be the first to see an additional $200 per semester credit hour.” Apparently, only affects incoming non-resident Fall 2017 freshmen and transfer students only. For the unlucky 350 families (of which we apparently are one), this really hurts financially…
It is a crazy increase. On top of $4000 min requirement for competitive scholarship to get OSS tuition waiver! My son has 33 ACT and 3.96 UW GPA with a whole bunch of classes taken at a community college. Yet no merit scholarships it’s really hard for OSS to get merit scholarship if you’re not NMF. Unfortunately, A&M IS a state school and the state of Texas is trying to make sure their taxes are spent on their residents, as it should be. So it’s becoming worse than sending kids to private schools! I don’t think this type of increase is the norm. I thought I read that the OSS portion of the tuition is not locked even if you choose locked in rate. Is this true??
Echoing what @gogogogobruins said, I truly believe that the heart of this matter is Texas is trying to protect its taxpayers, and although we are OOS ourselves, we completely see why the increases have taken place. I am very interested to see the stats come out on the Class of 2021 in the DARS report to see how many out of state students are going to attend this fall. And, of that small percentage, how many are paying the OOS tuition. I’m not sure about the difference in locked tuition for OOS vs. Texas residents.
What’s really crazy is that with the scholarship money they would be supplying ($19k President’s Gold Scholarship) for his ACT, Baylor, a private university, would be significantly cheaper to attend for us than Texas A&M. Think about that one for a moment…A prominent, private university is cheaper than a state university. That’s nuts… If you’re not a NMF or wanting to join the Corp, it’s almost as if A&M is saying in not so many words, “we don’t want you here”.
Unfortunately for us, only TAMU offers the major (Visualization) my son is interested in. He has always wanted to work for the likes of Pixar, Disney Animation, Dreamworks, Warner Brothers etc. There are dozens and dozens of Aggie Vizzers working for all of these companies–we’re finding that the Aggie Network is very strong when it comes to campus recruiting. We’re going to be talking to the Viz programs coordinator next week about what could be done to combat these huge tuition increases but we’re not holding our breath. Get out your checkbook…
I wouldn’t quite call Baylor a prominent university… but Yale, Chicago and Vandy were all cheaper to attend for our son than A&M. for his 33 on ACT he got no merit scholarship except for the Corps scholarship… and apparently we don’t have much need according to A&M… According to Yale, we’re probably destitute. lol.
as for Visualization, Aggie network IS very very very strong. so that’s a good thing. How about CalArts? disney used to ONLY hire CalArts grads when I was working in the film industry.
Gogogogobruins: Baylor is where my wife went and since it and TCU are the only 2 private schools in the Big 12, we hear about it a lot here in OK (especially the tuition cost). We ruled out CalArts because of distance from home but also that they do not use standardized test scores as a basis for admission, only a review of the applicant’s portfolio. I am an engineer and we liked that TAMU’s Viz program has some required basic science and math foundational courses. I’m going to be talking to the Visualization Department’s Undergraduate Programs Coordinator this afternoon to discuss our situation. Not very optimistic but thought it was worth a shot…A&M’s Regent’s raised OOS rates 22% this time. Our fear is what’s to prevent them from raising OOS rates again next year or year after…With these kinds of policies, it won’t be long before TAMU has essentially no OOS students. They appear to quickly be pricing themselves out of the market–as you found out. TAMU is a great school but…
Here’s some past statistical information (note: in 2014-2015 the structure of tuition & fees was changed ) https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?id=228723 The figures vary slightly from TAMU Business Services numbers from 2017- 2014=>( 36,962 ** 30208 ** 27,745 ** 28768{ 25489+3279fees} ) but give you a history for several years. There hasn’t been a ‘huge’ jump in OOS tuition for many years, it was independent of the scholarship waiver amount being changed creating more full OOS paying students. I wonder if the regents thought the increase in tuition waiver scholarship amounts were going to pass the legislature and fewer OOS would attend, so raised the amount per student??
@dtagg1 Just a note about your major, I have heard that you can apply for in state tuition if the major of choice is not offered in your home state. Just a thought…
A fun little glimpse of the impact Texas A&m has on the movies 
https://www.facebook.com/tamu/photos/a.10151694510823172.1073741841.25493258171/10152044175823172/?type=1&theater
Check out the picture on the right side of the visualization professor…anyone seen the movie Up! ?? Hmm…
*** is facebook
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Great idea that we investigated…Unfortunately, the State of Texas only participates in the reciprocity program you’re describing–for Graduate degrees ONLY…Other than somehow figuring out how to establish residency at some point in the future, we’re pretty much out of options and will have to pay OOS tuition, recently inflated rates and all. By the way, talked to the Viz undergrad programs advisor. Very nice man…Unfortunately, although he was very aware of the sharp increase in cost, he could offer nothing to help us…
My 2014 grad also with a life-long passion to be an animator and work for Pixar, Dreamworks, etc. only applied to A&M and UT Dallas due to those being the only schools in TX with Viz programs (called "Visualization Arts - Viz " at A&M and “Arts and Technology- ATEC” at UTD). After visiting both programs, and being given the red carpet treatment as he had a very high GPA and a 34 ACT, he knew hands-down that UTD was the program he wanted. He didn’t care about the school, just the animation program. BTW, he did apply to UT Austin just for ego sake and was accepted, but they only had a RTF major at the time which they said could be tailored to fit his desires, but didn’t seem like a good idea. I just heard that UT Austin started a Media and Entertainment major two years ago, so you should look into that. My son loves UTD! Very nerdy, quiet atmosphere. Beautiful buildings, great food, amazing dorms, apartments on campus and they are very generous with their scholarships, giving my son a full ride. Feel
free to ask me any questions you have.