I know that’s what the cost of attendance calculator says, but it has several costs (like personal expenses of $7700) that are excessive unless you need medical insurance and even the tuition and fees assumes a couple of thousand extra for lab fees or other supplements since the detailed schedule says $10,600 not the $12,200 in the CoA.
https://financialaid.utah.edu/tuition-and-fees/cost-of-attendance.php
Based on my kid’s experience, a realistic cost is ballpark $30K instate (if you can live without a car), and then there’s a $22K OOS supplement in year 1. About the same in total as a UC (where $35K is a realistic total cost for instate students if they waive the medical insurance).
I also wouldn’t entirely discount the possibility of Utah resuming consideration of SAT scores in merit evaluation (ie WUE) for 2025, as was the case before the pandemic, which might tip the balance in favor of this student.
I agree with others that the math at Utah is excellent, there are some very strong students (frequent Churchill scholarship winners) and research opportunities: