goldberry Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 (edited) Seriously? Unless you are either very well off, or will be getting a ton of need scholarships. We probably will not qualify for need based, but DD should qualify for some merit based. I have heard, oh, out of state will usually give your more scholarships to make it affordable. One school we looked at, out of state tuition was about $45000. This is a state university, not an elite school. Looking at their scholarship section, it said merit scholarships go up to $15000 per year. Woop-e-doo. One of the most expensive schools in our state, resident tuition is about $25000. It goes down from there. How does anyone afford to go out of state? ETA, I'm using the word tuition, but I really mean cost of attendance. Edited March 8, 2016 by goldberry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Assuming this is not a rhetorical question: there is a long thread on the College board "how do YOU pay for college" that could give you ideas. Some families, for example, live on one income and pay the other parent's income to the college. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 (edited) Research the different options. Alabama gives great OOS scholarships. Some schools give in-state tuition rates to high performing students. Some schools give huge NMF scholarships, including OOS students. Some states have lower costs in general. College Confidential has threads covering most of these scenarios. (Though more schools fit these scenarios than are listed on their website.) http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html#latest Edited March 8, 2016 by 8FillTheHeart 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiguirre Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Sometimes the merit offer includes paying in state tuition. Read the fine print verrrrrrry carefully. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2att Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 My oldest stayed in state for this very reason. Her top choice was an out of state school. Even if they had granted us full in state tuition for their state, staying in our state was still thousands cheaper per year. Our state has some of the cheapest in-state tuition in the country. All other things being equal (and for dd, they were--she just liked the other school better), there was no question to stay in-state. I think it gets tricky where there is a program or major that is much better at an out of state school, but for us that wasn't an issue. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldberry Posted March 8, 2016 Author Share Posted March 8, 2016 I guess it just seems like not a very good value to me, unless you are shooting for something very specific, maybe that you can't get in your state, or need the reputation of a better school. Even if her merit offer reduced her tuition to the state rate, that still wouldn't equal what she would get in our state at the state rate PLUS merit on top of that. I just don't understand why anyone would go that route unless there was a special situation, or money just wasn't an issue. What am I missing? I'm looking at schools in the South Carolina area, FWIW, DD is interested because she knows people there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Out of state public schools do not always offer great deals. Many of these schools offer their best deals to in state students (aka taxpayer families). There are a few exceptions, of course, but it's certainly not guaranteed. Out of state privates will often offer packages that will come down to in state rates for students they really want. Geographical diversity can be a big deal here if they want students from every state. Two of my three boys got better deals from out of state private schools than they would have gotten from our in state public schools, though for my middle son, one in state public was within $1000. He definitely preferred where he's going though. My youngest is the only one that is different. Even then, an in state public for him would only have been a little bit less expensive than where he's going - and he loves where he's going more. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 (edited) Have you looked at WUE? ETA, oops, that wouldn't include South Carolina... Edited March 8, 2016 by wapiti Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldberry Posted March 8, 2016 Author Share Posted March 8, 2016 College Confidential has threads covering most of these scenarios. (Though more schools fit these scenarios than are listed on their website.) http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html#latest That list is very helpful, thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen in VA Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Do remember that not all OOS colleges/unis are created equal financially. Some states charge much lower rates (even for OOS) than others. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Out of state privates will often offer packages that will come down to in state rates for students they really want. Geographical diversity can be a big deal here if they want students from every state. Two of my three boys got better deals from out of state private schools than they would have gotten from our in state public schools, though for my middle son, one in state public was within $1000. He definitely preferred where he's going though. Well, we certainly don't have all the offers in yet, but it's not panning out that way so far. In-state public offered a scholarship that lowered it even lower than its sticker price. Out of state private offered a much bigger scholarship (their max merit) if you just look at $, but the net price after that + need-based aid is still $3K over the in-state's sticker price, and almost $10K more than in-state's net. And that's including loans in the private package, so more like $15K (per year) more if you count what will have to be paid back. Their NPC figured grant money that did not materialize. Bummer. We're only one state away. Maybe not diverse enough. Haven't got anything back from the other private schools or the out-of-state pubilcs, so we shall see... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Non-resident tuition in my state is cheaper than resident tuition in some. There are also many agreements between states so that out-of-state students from neighboring states or OOS students with very high test scores get in-state tuition or something close to it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachermom2834 Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 It wouldn't be at all affordable for my ds. He knew he could apply to in state public/private schools or out of state private schools. Alabama is an exception. If he had one more ACT point he could have made that work. But generally, out of state public schools are very expensive. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwen in VA Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Dd attends a OOS college in NC. Much to our surprise, tuition actually only costs about $6K more than the in-state school she went to last year. That fact says that either in-state tuition in VA is expensive or OOS tuition in NC is very cheap. We are very thankful, regardless of which statement is more accurate. So sometimes OOS doesn't require breaking the bank. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 At present we have one out of state public school as a possibility, depending on whether she qualifies next year for NMSF or NMF *and* gets one of their really good scholarships for that (it's listed as available for a "limited number" of students who qualify). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klmama Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 This is one reason some people attend in-state schools for undergrad, but out-of-state schools for graduate level work. Some schools will waive the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition expenses for graduate students who work as TAs. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopskipjump Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Yeah - from what we are learning - the OOS "academic scholarships" are justenough to bring Cost of Tuition down to In-State tuition costs. Add in Room/Board, etc... So, it would be like attending the in-state Big University and paying Full Price! :mellow: Add to the frustration that our in-state Big Universities HIGHLY recruit out-of-state students. They offer major scholarships for OOS students. Their scholarships for in-state students (who aren't NMF)? Are itty-bitty!! So - for OUR state, some OOS students can get a much better deal than we can as in-state residents. It's frustrating! And - when we ran financial calculators - they often did not include ACADEMIC merit aid in the final balance. So, when we ran the calculators, I figured that the FINANCIAL/NEED-BASED aid would be what the calculator said... and then ADD any ACADEMIC merit aid to that number.... Nope - at at least one school - dd qualified for their largest ACADEMIC merit aid scholarship... and, apparently, since that surpassed what her FINANCIAL/NEED aid $ would have been... she didn't qualify for ANY Financial/Need Based aid. :bored: I'd thought it would ADD at least a couple thousand to DDs financial package... making it more possible for her to attend that school... but, no. Apparently not. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Well, we certainly don't have all the offers in yet, but it's not panning out that way so far. In-state public offered a scholarship that lowered it even lower than its sticker price. Out of state private offered a much bigger scholarship (their max merit) if you just look at $, but the net price after that + need-based aid is still $3K over the in-state's sticker price, and almost $10K more than in-state's net. And that's including loans in the private package, so more like $15K (per year) more if you count what will have to be paid back. Their NPC figured grant money that did not materialize. Bummer. We're only one state away. Maybe not diverse enough. Haven't got anything back from the other private schools or the out-of-state pubilcs, so we shall see... It's definitely not guaranteed, and yes, one state away tends to not be nearly as good as a few states (or more) away. Most students want to attend college within 2-3 hours of their house. An additional significant percentage are willing to go 4-6 hours. Beyond that it's far more rare (percentage-wise) and there are far more college choices making that group the more sought after one. It can be interesting to look at the stats from our guidance office - or just the postings on the wall at where kids get accepted and how much in merit aid they get. (Need-based aid is not listed publicly.) The difference in cost to us from private schools middle son applied to was 30K+ annually. Needless to say, he's not attending that 30K+ (more costly) school. He has no regrets. He loves where he's going. Nope - at at least one school - dd qualified for their largest ACADEMIC merit aid scholarship... and, apparently, since that surpassed what her FINANCIAL/NEED aid $ would have been... she didn't qualify for ANY Financial/Need Based aid. :bored: I'd thought it would ADD at least a couple thousand to DDs financial package... making it more possible for her to attend that school... but, no. Apparently not. To anyone else reading... this is extremely common - far more common than not. Federal need-based aid (other than loans) can not provide more aid than your EFC requires you to pay. Any scholarship or grant you get gets counted in that amount, so if one has an EFC of 10K and gets a merit scholarship down to that amount left, there will be no more federal need based aid. Any merit aid amount can lower need based aid accordingly. Be wary of other relatives wanting to help pay for college. A couple of financial aid sessions called these MGM scholarships ("My GrandMa"). If grandma sends the money directly to the school, the school has to count it against federal aid if it brings that amount lower. It can lower aid awards. Grandma needs to send it to the student or parents and they deposit her $$, then send it to the school for this not to happen. A handful of schools decide need on their own and are known for offering higher amounts to families, but that's coming from their own endowments, not the federal government. Merit aid awards can sometimes be big, but again, they come from other sources. Best wishes to all of you waiting on financial awards. May loved schools work out to be affordable. And if not... I ended up going to my second choice school and absolutely loved it. In hindsight, I'd have made it my first choice school. Most kids love where they end up even if it wasn't their top choice. Not all... but most. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Not all colleges have higher tuition for out-of-state students. My dd's private college is the same for in-state and out-of-state. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plansrme Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Most students don't; they go in-state. One stat I saw online said 73% of students go to their own in-state universities. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachermom2834 Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Honestly, probably some that do it probably do it the same way expensive private schools are done without much aid. Parent loans and private loans. If your stats are high enough for decent aid at most out of state public universities they are probably high enough to get an excellent deal at your in state or a private school. It all is challenging. DS will have some options but I worked hard for him not to get excited about out of state universities. And out of state private school might come up with more aid and scholarships than expected but those major state universities just follow a formula for scholarships based on numbers. I have run so many net price calculators over the years. I am sure there are some regional campuses that are more affordable out of state but major state flagships are tough financially. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 Most students don't; they go in-state. One stat I saw online said 73% of students go to their own in-state universities. I think that's close. Here's a graph showing the stats between public and private, BUT it doesn't show whether that public is in state or out of state for the student. http://www.statista.com/statistics/183995/us-college-enrollment-and-projections-in-public-and-private-institutions/ I went to Virginia Tech - a public school, but I was from OOS as were about 25% of my peers at the time. I think a little more come from OOS now. Regardless, there are some very good public schools that easily compete with top private schools for students. THEN add in all of those who merely want to stay close to home and/or want the lower costs (if they didn't get options as good at desired private schools). Without doing the exact math, it looks like 73% is close or spot on for public college attendance - the variable part is what's the percentage for staying in state. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luckymama Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 (edited) And this is one rason why college research sucks up so much time! Dd has one in-state option, but it's only a partial fit for her needs and interests. We have on The List multiple oos flagship schools (U of State, State U) and private achools that are better fits and either offer guaranteed merit aid based on her stats (ACT and GPA), guaranteed merit aid based on NMF (who knows what will happen with cutoffs this year), and competitive merit aid that she might be awarded. Some schools came off lists like http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com but most came from digging deeply into the schools' websites. Edited March 8, 2016 by Luckymama 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 College searching is a time-suck for sure. It took us forever to find good choices for our student that we could afford. My dd got her two best offers from out-of-state, public schools - with 'best' meaning dollars out of pocket at a college that fit her needs. One was a state flagship whose offer beat our own flagship by just a bit (again, in dollars out of pocket). The one that made the better offer has a higher rank and better stats, so you just never can tell. The other was a medium sized university who beat every other offer by quite a bit. We also found quite a few schools that offer in-state tuition to students who meet certain levels of GPA and standardized test scores, which opens up more possibilities if room/board are comparable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5052 Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 It REALLY varies. Out-of-state tuition at my undergraduate school isn't that much more than in-state here. Neither of mine are interested in the programs there, but if they were, that would be an option. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopskipjump Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 (edited) I did know that the aid couldn't provide more than the EFC - but, I thought, if the amounts weren't close to EFC, that you could still receive both. Am I crazy? :hat: (anything is possible at this point in the process! :drool5: ) For instance (just using nice, round numbers here for the example...): OOS COA: $45,000 - ACADEMIC scholarship: $15,000 ----- Balance = $30,000 ~~~~~~~~ If I run the university financial aid calculator (which doesn't factor in the ACADEMIC scholarship, because, in this instance, it's not an automatic scholarship...), I get: OOS COA: $45,000 - FINANCIAL AID: $7,500 ------ Balance = $37,500 ~~~~~~~~~ SO - I had thought that the end result would be: OOS COA: $45,000 - ACADEMIC scholarship: $15,000 - FINANCIAL AID: $7,500 -------- Balance = $22,500 ~~~~~~~~~ But - from what I am seeing so far (we haven't received anything in the mail yet - but some portals have the letter... which I assume is the "Final" letter... available to view and print) is the first example. Where the only "financial aid" is the already-offered ACADEMIC Scholarship - and ZERO "Financial Aid" dollars. Our EFC, let's say, is $10,000 - so still well below any of the Balances in the scenarios above (and these particular schools are not schools that meet EFC. I had just assumed/hoped that there would be a combining of academic and financial aid offers... but it looks like it's one or t'other. At least, at these particular schools...) And - when we ran financial calculators - they often did not include ACADEMIC merit aid in the final balance. So, when we ran the calculators, I figured that the FINANCIAL/NEED-BASED aid would be what the calculator said... and then ADD any ACADEMIC merit aid to that number.... Nope - at at least one school - dd qualified for their largest ACADEMIC merit aid scholarship... and, apparently, since that surpassed what her FINANCIAL/NEED aid $ would have been... she didn't qualify for ANY Financial/Need Based aid. :bored: I'd thought it would ADD at least a couple thousand to DDs financial package... making it more possible for her to attend that school... but, no. Apparently not. To anyone else reading... this is extremely common - far more common than not. Federal need-based aid (other than loans) can not provide more aid than your EFC requires you to pay. Any scholarship or grant you get gets counted in that amount, so if one has an EFC of 10K and gets a merit scholarship down to that amount left, there will be no more federal need based aid. Any merit aid amount can lower need based aid accordingly. Be wary of other relatives wanting to help pay for college. A couple of financial aid sessions called these MGM scholarships ("My GrandMa"). If grandma sends the money directly to the school, the school has to count it against federal aid if it brings that amount lower. It can lower aid awards. Grandma needs to send it to the student or parents and they deposit her $$, then send it to the school for this not to happen. A handful of schools decide need on their own and are known for offering higher amounts to families, but that's coming from their own endowments, not the federal government. Merit aid awards can sometimes be big, but again, they come from other sources. Best wishes to all of you waiting on financial awards. May loved schools work out to be affordable. And if not... I ended up going to my second choice school and absolutely loved it. In hindsight, I'd have made it my first choice school. Most kids love where they end up even if it wasn't their top choice. Not all... but most. Edited March 10, 2016 by hopskipjump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Hopskipjump, we were told by one school that they could not offer more aid bc of federal laws governing aid. I am confused by it all, though, bc obviously schools can offer merit scholarships greater than your calculated EFC, bc we have a high EFC and also have a student on full merit scholarship. I think the murky water is when they combine merit with institutional grants. Merit scholarships remove need. So then the grant money fills the remaining need, not need provided and then add scholarship on top. Essentially, some students costs remain exactly the same as w/o the scholarship bc just institutional grant money would have landed them in the exact same spot. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachermom2834 Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 Hopskipjump, we were told by one school that they could not offer more aid bc of federal laws governing aid. I am confused by it all, though, bc obviously schools can offer merit scholarships greater than your calculated EFC, bc we have a high EFC and also have a student on full merit scholarship. I think the murky water is when they combine merit with institutional grants. Merit scholarships remove need. So then the grant money fills the remaining need, not need provided and then add scholarship on top. Essentially, some students costs remain exactly the same as w/o the scholarship bc just institutional grant money would have landed them in the exact same spot. Yes. My ds received nice merit awards that met most of his need most places and then got small grants (like $1200) of financial aid. When I look at net price and average cost of attendance it seems likely that ds would have gotten the same deal without the merit aid, he would have gotten much larger grants. Kind of disappointing, especially if those scholarships come with stipulations that the grants wouldn't have? It is all a frustrating process but it is good you are figuring it out now for your next daughter. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted March 9, 2016 Share Posted March 9, 2016 I did know that the aid couldn't provide more than the EFC - but, I thought, if the amounts weren't close to EFC, that you could still receive both. Am I crazy? :hat: (anything is possible at this point in the process! :drool5: ) Yes, schools can combine aid like you suggested as long as it doesn't dip into your EFC (and use federal non-loan aid). All three of my boys have received a combo of merit and need based aid getting us down to our EFC. Whether the school will do it or not is up to them and depends upon how much they want the student coupled with how much money they have to distribute. Many schools give need-based aid later than merit aid, so you don't necessarily have to give up hope. The two aid awards come from different departments within the college and they aren't generally in sync with each other. Merit aid must come first (if they're divided) as it can affect need-based aid. Students who are down to their EFC and receive a late scholarship - from anywhere, even Grandma - find their need based aid gets adjusted. That's not bad when they choose to get rid of loans, but most schools don't ditch the basic Fed loans first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjbucks1 Posted March 10, 2016 Share Posted March 10, 2016 Since the OP mentioned schools in South Carolina, I would like to mention the University of South Carolina. The majority of students admitted to the honors college receive a tuition waiver and pay in-state tuition ($11,000 this year). On top of that, they offer merit scholarships (ds received $4000/year). They allow their National Merit scholarship To be stacked on top of that ($6000/year), so tuition would come to $1000 for the first year, plus R&B. This is cheaper than what our state flag ship offered (which would leave us with about $4000/year for tuition). Ultimately, ds has chosen another state flag-ship as he has a near full-ride. Without scholarships, however, we would never choose an OOS school over our local state flagship school 😄 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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