Oldest son is class of '26 and mainly interested in management/finance as potentially pre-MBA or pre-law. For context, his weighted GPA is probably around 4.4 (large solid public HS in the suburban mid-South) and he will likely have 9-10 AP classes by graduation. Was in the 98th percentile among sophomores on the PSAT this year so things are looking good for SAT/ACT. Extracurriculars will likely be solid but not extraordinary.
I’m curious which public schools have a reputation for offering solid merit aid for OOS applicants, particularly those with an overall acceptance rate in the 40-60% range. He likely won’t be a great candidate for need-based aid due to household income, but we’ll be putting 3 kids through college within 5 years so paying full sticker price at an OOS school may not be the wisest choice. We’ll certainly also be looking at private schools but want to be sure we cast a wide net and find the right fit for him. We’ve started building a list that includes the following publics, but would appreciate others that we may not have thought about:
UMD
UIUC
UGA
Binghamton
Stony Brook
UWash
UW-Madison
Purdue
IU
Rutgers
NJIT
Reaches would include UMich, GT, UNC-CH and UT-Austin. Some safer options might be Mizzou, KU and UT-Dallas. Appreciate any thoughts you all can share.
Do you have an idea as to how much merit you need, or what you need the final cost to be? I would not count on merit to these OOS reaches. Acceptance will be challenging enough (doesn’t hurt to try if you have identified safeties). Maybe add Pitt and UDel?
Add Univ. of South Carolina (#1 international business ranking for over 30 years), Auburn, and Bama–with high ACT/SAT scores, these schools tend to have a more automatic merit scholarship system than those mentioned above .
I wouldn’t say there’s a “need” for a specific merit amount - philosophically I think there is wisdom in keeping undergrad costs low, particularly if you’re eyeing a professional degree program down the road. Pitt is another one I could have put on the list. UDel is not one I’ve looked into much so I appreciate the mention.
UDel and Bing gave my daughters decent merit, UMD $3000 a year, $8000 a year from Pitt. They mostly applied to northeast schools. I know Rutgers is not known for merit for in state students. One B, lots of AP’s, 33/34 act.
Keep in mind schools generally raise their prices every year, and your son is only a sophomore. If Pitt is still giving merit in two years, $8K might only get it down to this year’s price. (Just one example)
I would figure out a budget now. Also, they all have different starting prices - U Mich is $76K OOS with no merit.
Great question, and something I’m still thinking a lot about. Ballpark, I would say if we could get annual cost down to around $25-30K, I would feel very good. Not that we couldn’t make it work above that, but that would be ideal.
If your student ends up with high stats, he could also try for some of the bigger competitive merit scholarships at some of the lower-ranked private universities that have decent undergrad business. For example, TCU comes to mind - tuition for Neeley just increased and full pay is quite expensive, though merit is typical. While their more typical merit (mid 20s) would not be enough, some of their bigger, more selective scholarships could potentially get your cost down to where you want to be.
That’s going to be pretty challenging OOS. The types of publics that get much OOS interest tend to have full OOS costs of attendance $50K+ these days, so it would take a lot of merit to get below $30K. Not saying it is impossible, just noting I think there are going to be more options around $10-15K+ more than that.
All other factors being equal, I’d look at flagships in the Great Plains and Rockies - many Southern flagships offer strong business programs, but they are now inundated with applicants and merit is dwindling even during the current cycle at places like Auburn. Ole Miss and Miss State should still work. KU, K-State, and Mizzou can probably get into your range, and Nebraska might. New Mexico, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma State probably will, Wyoming and Montana might. Utah would be a strong choice, but OOS merit seems to be dwindling there too. Colorado won’t get to that budget.
ETA: Arizona and West Virginia have been staples of the auto-merit world, but serious financial concerns at both are likely to cause big decreases in OOS merit going forward, so caveat emptor.
Has in-state been ruled out? It looks like your child is on a good path. Depending on stats in next year, would add FSU if it must be OOS public with good business school and ~$30K range.
Edited to add that MBA will probably be unnecessary if you do undergrad business right these days. Pre-law would be a different story.