How do students afford OOS tuition for schools like Michigan, Georgetown, Berkeley etc. How far do these schools go when it comes to financial aid and making school affordable for the family of the student accepted
Georgetown is private. And also in DC, so, technically everyone is “OOS”.
In the case of UC Berkeley, it is a public university, created to educate residents of the State and is obligated to the taxpayers of California. It does not have any financial obligation nor requirement to fund non-residents. Since the state is out of money, it cannot provide scholarships/state funding to non-residents. They charge full fees to anyone who is not a resident and was not educated in the state.
People with the ability to pay OOS rates generally are very wealthy and can afford those rates of $60K per year.
Students, whose parents have been paying ridiculously high state taxes for years, can afford some of the rates because the State tries to make it affordable for its residents.
This year, they had over 100K applications, so I guess attracting students, who are willing to pay those fees, from everywhere, is not a problem.
Michigan is a state school committed to assisting in-state students first. Our experience with Michigan OOS is that we were expected to be full-pay. Michigan is not very generous with OOS aid, but it DOES provide some to those with demonstrated need.
Students can borrow only up to $5,500. Parents, jobs, work/study, and merit/scholarships generally provide the rest.
If the parents have the money and it’s the right fit for the student in question, why not? Some state schools are world class. They have amazing professors and incredible resources that can compete with most of the private universities out there. Many students want the social experience of a large school with big sports as well, which is easy to find at Michigan, UCLA, UVa, etc.
You just named off 3 extremely different schools when if comes to affordability:
Georgetown: Financial Aid galore; a lot of private schools with high endowment will give people enough money to where they can afford it. Also note that Georgetown has no in-state/out-of-state tuition difference, it’s $50K all the way around. It usually looks something like this: we have assessed that your parents can only pay $10,000 per year to help you, so we are going to give you the entire cost of tuition, room, board, and supplies minus the $10,000 your parents can afford and minus the amount we expect you to come up with on your own (In my case at UR, it was around $5,500 this year ). Then, they offer a work study or loans to let you get by. Essentially, the more your parents can pay, the more they do. This promotes cultural and economic diversity, as well as ensure a likelihood of future donations due to a sense of obligation for the grand gift of a discounted great education.
Michigan: Public school that is generous. These schools usually provide some kind of financial aid package, and the better ones (UMich included) can rival the generosity of top private schools. Some public schools (like Alabama) have in-state tuition or huge waivers for high achievers, which encourages smart applicants. Other schools have great financial aid because of their national ranking and contributions. Some applicants have well-off parents who can afford this tuition hike. Other applicants have parents who don’t consider what the heck is going on and just sign themselves off to loan agencies for their childrens’ exploration. Notice also that many richer private school applicants are more than happy to go to an out-of-state school for an advantage in their field of study if they were rejected from their counterparts. Also note that full-payers at privates would actually spend less going to a public school OOS, so that’s an appeal.
Berkeley: Rich or dumb parents pay for OOS at top CA public schools, IMO. The schools ARE great, so many full-payers who can’t make it into their private schools (and even some that can) will go there for the combination of a California experience combined with a giant research uni experience. These are competitive and the appeal is there. They offer almost no aid for OOS. Applicants whose parents don’t have the money can get huge loan options (I was curious about UCSD until they offered me/my parents a $50K loan package … with the out of pocket price coming out to 0, if you can imagine). Also notice that these are about the same price as full-pay at privates, so some people can afford it and are willing to pay for the experience.
I just don’t understand why parents who can afford to spend $60k per year would prefer to send their child to a lower ranked private instead of a higher ranked public. For example, I don’t think it’s stupid for full pay parents to opt to send their kid to UCLA over Boston College simply because UCLA is a public school.
Not everyone is rank obsessed. That is not the only criteria for choosing a school.
@raclut Agreed. Rank is much less important than fit, location, and many other factors. However, implying that public schools are inferior for everyone purely because they are affiliated with the state is just as ridiculous as implying that lower-ranked schools are inferior to higher-ranked schools for all students.
@studious99 I wasn’t implying anything.
We are fortunate to have great state schools that many out of state students would love to attend but the admission is tougher for them and the costs are more. If a family can afford to send their kids to any school good for them. Who am I to judge their choices. Whether they decide to go public/private or high/low ranked that is their choice and honestly I am not paying their bill so it’s none of my concern.
Back to OP. How do people afford OOS tuition? Some parents are just financially much stronger and others have been saving for their kids education since they were born. For a family with financial constraints going out of state is not always affordable. State schools are under no obligation to fund out of state students.
Georgetown is a private school so the tuition rate is the same for everyone though the cost of attendance maybe different based on a families income and assets.
@Studious99 Re: UCLA vs BC. Some students don’t want freshman classes with 800 students. Some students prefer a Catholic education. Among other reasons.
Some parents save money. Some parents borrow money. Plenty of parents who have money do not send their kids to expensive OOS schools though. CC doesn't reflect that well. You don't often hear back from the kid admitted to georgetown who couldn't go because the 30K package they gave him still left a COA well beyond that comfort level of his parents. CC is full of unicorns.
How do people afford OOS tuition? There are tons & tons of rich people out there or people with access to money…I wish i could be less cynical but that’s what it is. In my son’s small circle (and we are an urban public high school family so we’re not surrounded by wealth), 3 of his friends are having grandparents (or money inherited from deceased grandparents) pay for it…2 more won big merit awards (with my older kid, quite a few of her classmates managed to pull this off), and the rest are somehow cobbling it together…i honestly don’t know how. In our case, my S got into Cornell…but will be attending our state university.
(and I’ll note that we did save money…but not enough to pay $280,000 over 4 years…plus, we have a 2nd child)
Some people are just lucky enough to get a good aid package or have family willing to pay.
For example, in our senior year my friend and I applied to the same OOS school in the pacific northwest. His family was a lot higher income than mine is. We had similar stats. But I applied for a very popular major and he applied for one that’s not popular at all. He got a ton of major specific scholarships and is currently attending that university for about 5K of his own money.
Or like me, i’m transferring OOS next year and I have 10K in savings and I will be living off campus with that money, while working throughout school, so when applying I only looked at the tuition cost. I am able to go OOS because the tuition itself(15K) was paid for through a scholarship and stafford loan.
Southern, I don’t think you are cynical but you are missing the fact that some people- two wage earners for example- live on one salary and bank the other to pay for college. So from a lifestyle perspective they appear to live modestly, drive clunker cars, don’t go on vacation except to visit relatives, etc. but they are EARNING and saving that money. They aren’t rich, they are living beneath their means which used to be a lot more common than it seems to be right now. They’ve got an 18 year early warning signal (the birth of a baby) that college is a-coming.
Good health helps- keeps both adults in the work force. Good luck helps- stable employment. Being ambitious and mobile helps- someone who is willing to travel, relocate, etc. for their job is likely to advance faster than someone who cannot. Solid marriage helps- I know plenty of people who were on the “save one salary” plan but a divorce is a shortcut to ruining any financial planning if you are of modest means- just the rent on a cruddy apartment throws the savings plan out the window.
But there are people who are neither rich, nor have “access” to money, and didn’t inherit a thing except for grandma’s china sugar bowl who manage to pay for college.
Amen @blossom
It looks like you want to go to University of Michigan as an OOS student.
If you have significant financial need, Michigan might…MIGHT…give you need based aid that will help,pay your costs. The school does NOT guarantee to meet full need for all out of state students… but supposedly they are trying to move in that direction.
But I have to ask…if you can’t afford these very expensive colleges…are you also looking at colleges you CAN afford?
My friend’s dad pays for the education of the grandchildren, from Pre-k through college. It is a great gift to her family and her brother’s kids also went to our school. Both friend and her brother are pretty average, middle class earners, but her father is often on the list of the highest earners in our state. The grandchildren have gone to a combination of private, OOS public, and an instate public that is not the flagship. They have the luxury of picking schools without worrying about the cost.
So here are 6 middle class kids who went to college wherever they wanted, and some who don’t know the grandfather might be thinking “How did those parents pay for THREE kids at private/OOS schools.”
The question shouldn’t be “how do people afford oos tuition”, it should be “why would anybody in their right mind pay OOS tuition” At a public college you can guarantee that your will have 300+ students in some of your freshman classes, is that worth paying $60K plus? Not to mention graduate students doing the teaching. If your going to pay that much go to a LAC or a top private college. OOS is so not worth it. UCB, UVA, UM…smoking good deal for instate students, OOS not so much.
My daughter pays less for her OOS flagship than she would for the instate flagship, and just a little more than she’d pay for other state public schools (less with the FA she gets).