Thinking about colleges that might really serve an important purpose for some applicants, I wanted to add Grand Valley State (95%) to my list of suggestions. I have heard many good reviews, and it made US News’s peer survey list for Best Undergraduate Teaching. It is located in what is basically an exurb of Grand Rapids, Michigan, which in turn is a decent-sized city.
But the main reason I am adding it is that they make it relatively easy, and transparent, to get the same tuition as Michigan residents if you are OOS–including if you are an International.
Combined with the low living costs–housing and food this year was $11,550 on campus, $9,090 off campus–this makes it one of the potentially least expensive four-year universities I have seen for Internationals that is not a ludicrously hard admit (either in general or for Internationals with need). They will also add additional merit on top of that–more for higher number OOS kids, but still some for Internationals too.
Here are some details:
Of course that still won’t be enough if you are a very high need International, or for the many high need domestic students who can do much better still in-state. But I think there is a market for colleges for Internationals, and at least some domestic students looking to go OOS, where they can contribute some substantial amount but nonetheless are looking to make it as little as possible.