At first WUE seemed like a good deal, because it’s 150% of in-state tuition for 4 years. However, for some schools, it may be cheaper to pay out-of-state the 1st year and then in-state the rest (assuming that you can get in-state residency).
For example, at the U of Utah, in-state tuition is $9,222 and out-of-state tuition is $29,215.
** So WUE tuition is $55,332 for 4 years, while paying the out-of-state the 1st year and then in-state the next 3 years is $56,881. Thus, you only save about $1500 over 4 years with WUE.
** However, if it takes you 5 years to graduate, then paying WUE tuition the 1st four years and out-of-state the 5th year is $84,547, which is actually $18k more than the $66,103 that you would pay by paying out-of-state the 1st year and then in-state the next 4 years.
Also, at the U of NV, Reno, in-state tuition is $7,925 and out-of-state tuition is $22,397.
** Thus, you pay about $47,550 over 4 years with WUE. However, paying the out-of-state the 1st year and then in-state the next 3 years will only cost you $46,172! Thus, you are actually paying $1400 more with WUE (assuming that you can get in-state residency).
** It gets worse if you take you 5 years to graduate, since paying WUE tuition the 1st four years and out-of-state the 5th year is $69,947, which is about $16k more than the $54,097 you would pay in out-of-state the 1st year and then in-state the next 4 years.
Am I missing something here?
Does it make sense to decline WUE the 1st year and pay out-of-state in the hope of becoming a resident and paying in-state the rest of the years?
If you decline WUE the 1st year, can you reconsider and ask for it the 2nd?
Is it reasonable to expect to get in-state tuition in Nevada or Utah after 1 year?
Utah: You could get WUE tuition your first year and switch to instate onward (or get one of their generous merit scholarships). Utah is one of the few remaining states that’s okay with students becoming state residents after a year.
For most other states (including Nevada) residency is where the parents live; moving for educational purposes forfeits the ability to be considered in-state .
Watch the 5 year tuition rates. Some schools end all merit aid after 4 years or 8 semesters. Why are you thinking it will take 5 years? My kids both made it in and out in 8 semesters. D#2 had NO credits from high school, no summers. Eight straight semesters. D#1 had 3 AP credits and did do one summer because she needed some specific courses in order to graduate in 8 semesters.
Can you just have kid move to Utah and take a gap year working there? You can get instate rates at CC after only 6 months IIRC. As you seem to be counting out scholarships, what are your stats? Salt Lake county will have tons of entry level jobs and living outside of the Salt lake proper area is doable $$ in a house share set up. Then you can have instate rates after a gap year or crack on with some transferable credit at CC after 6 months. Lots of U of U stduents will look non trad as they will be older if they have done a mission, they might be part time with a job and be married with kids, the 6 yr grad rate is real because of life as well as academics. Unless you have money to burn a year at OOS rates for the U of U is nuts.
I think you have to look at each WUE school separately. If you want to go to Utah and do all the things necessary to become a resident (live there year round, work, support yourself), then it might be a better choice to do that rather than WUE.
You’d have to look at the requirements for becoming an instate student at each school. In most states, it’s pretty difficult for an 18 year old to do it without the parents moving.
You also need to consider if you can get scholarships in addition to WUE. At some schools, you can so you aren’t paying the full 150%. Those scholarships might be for OOS students, so if you became instate you’d lose it.
My daughter has a 3.7 GPA (No AP classes), but only a 1060 on the PSAT (SAT score is due today). Not sure if this is good enough for any scholarships.
Thanks about the tip about the average age. I saw on https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/university-of-utah/student-life/diversity/ that 44.5% of the students are in the 22-29 age bracket, while only 35.7% are in the traditional 18-21 age group, which is much lower than the national average of 60%. She might be happier at UN Reno where its closer to 60% (58.5%)
In CA many students take 5-6 years to graduate also because they can't always get the classes they need. I have no feel if the norm is 4 years at other schools.
No money to burn here. Although paying the OOS rate for 1 year and then getting residency is about the same as WUE for all 4 years, so it's not as bad as it seems if you can get residency
This is probably very overstated as a reason for late graduation. The real reasons are likely that:
A. Less strong students may not be able to handle full course loads needed to graduate in 8 semesters. Note that 4-year graduation rates mostly track admission selectivity.
B. Many students are from lower income families and need to work to help pay for college. This may require them to take lighter course loads or gap semesters. It may also constrain them from taking courses offered only at certain times that conflict with their work hours.
C. At some schools, taking time off from school for co-op jobs is common.
Utah OOS parent here. Utah strongly encourages students to take the residency route rather than choosing WUE. It is competitive to get WUE money with only limited spots available (and as noted above, you can’t get residency while a WUE student). In addition, there are quite a lot of one year merit awards for OOS students which can offset some or all of the OOS tuition supplement of $18K-$20K (it varies because they charge per credit hour). Typical stats to get these would be an ACT of 30-31 (higher stats can get you four year merit scholarships which may make it unnecessary to gain residency, though you will have to pay extra if you go above 18 credit hours per semester). The major issue is that you do need to stay in Utah the summer after freshman year, because you are only allowed to leave the state for 29 days during the 365 days you are qualifying for residency. Also, your parents can’t claim you as a dependent on their tax return so they lose some tax deductions. In order to make it easy to qualify for residency, many OOS students become orientation leaders during their first summer - you get a free room and some meals plus a stipend of $3500 (https://orientation.utah.edu/orientation/OL%202019%20Position%20Description.pdf). Note that none of this applies to WUE schools outside Utah, where residency is not feasible without your parents moving there.
There are some incorrect assertions above. Utah does not require you to support yourself. Your parents just don’t claim you as a dependent on their tax return (even though you may still be eligible to be claimed assuming they are providing more than 50% of your support). Because of the merit scholarships, there is typically no need to take a gap year (and that would be challenging unless you are really self-reliant). Also Utah students are not that different/“non-trad” to elsewhere (especially the OOS students) and Mormon influence is really not particularly strong compared to BYU.
All good points about students taking longer than 4 years to graduate. Also, when I was in college at a CA state school in the early 1990’s there was a recession going on, and a bit of a fear of graduating, not getting a job, and the degree becoming stagnant. Also, because of the lack of jobs then, those with the highest GPAs were getting hired 1st. So this caused some to lighten their loads and go for a higher GPA. In addition, tuition was only about $2k a year, so there wasn’t much of a concern about tge cost of tuition
Thanks Twoin18. It sounds like paying the 1st year OOS is not too crazy, if she’s willingly to stick around the summer after her 1st year. Also, us it possible to not work at all that summer and take classes to satisfy the residency requirements?
Well D got a 1080 on her SAT today. I thought it’d be higher because her GPA is a 3.7. Anyhow, she hasn’t ruled out a CCC, but might like the experience more of going away to college and living in a dorm
These days, NACE surveys suggest that about 70% of employers hiring new college graduates use GPA as an initial screen (not necessarily the only initial screen) to determine whom to interview, and about 60% of those employers use 3.0 as a cut-off GPA. So the difference in interview chances for a student with a 2.99 GPA versus one with 3.01 GPA (assuming similar major, courses, previous work experience, projects, etc.) could be quite significant.
It is generally thought that most employers do not emphasize GPA much or at all after the applicant gets to the interview.
“It sounds like paying the 1st year OOS is not too crazy, if she’s willingly to stick around the summer after her 1st year. Also, is it possible to not work at all that summer and take classes to satisfy the residency requirements?”
Yes, this is possible too (the only requirement is documented physical presence - evidence can be class registration or paychecks/employer letter for example). Everyone pays in-state tuition rates during the summer so it is not too costly. However, only a limited selection of classes are available (including some general eds and several online classes), it depends on the major and how popular it is (so more are available in science and math than in liberal arts). It is quite easy to work and take a few classes, particularly the online ones.
I’m doubtful that a 1080 SAT would be high enough to qualify for WUE at Utah since its below their 25th percentile of enrolled students. Other WUE schools may also have minimum requirements to qualify for WUE, one student we know was turned down for WUE at UNR last year (even though he was admitted).
Thanks MYOS1634. I didn’t realize that getting residency in NV for a student, who’e parents live OOS was so difficult… It looks like if my D wants to be a resident there (and my wife and I continue to live OOS) then she would have to show that she is financially independent by showing that her “wages/financial aid/scholarships/etc. support [her] expenses” https://www.unlv.edu/admissions/residency and that she would not be able to subtract WUE from the cost of attendance, because “A student enrolled at an NSHE institution under a discounted tuition program (WUE, Nevada Advantage, Good Neighbor, or Children of Alumni) must disenroll from the program and pay full nonresident tuition for at least 12 months before being able to reclassify as a Nevada resident.” https://www.unr.edu/academic-central/academic-resources/becoming-a-nevada-resident