I believe both Minnesota and Maine are trans refugee states.
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University of New Mexico provides gender affirming care through its student health center (SHAC)
https://shac.unm.edu/services/sexual-reproductive-health/gender-affirming-care.html
All SHAC services are covered thru a mandatory student health insurance fee that is included in UNMâs COA.
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Okay, a couple other options:
Grand Valley State (MI): Reach out to the admissions office to see how they would calculate your Dâs GPA. If they calculate it out to a 3.8 (i.e. with some weighting), then your D would be allowed to use in-state tuition and would receive an additional $11k/year. That would take the sticker costs from $32k down to about $15k. Thereâs a poster on here who has spoken highly of their (current) experience at Grand Valley. Incoming Freshman Merit Scholarships 2025-2026 - Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships - Grand Valley State University
U. of Minnesota - Morris: The sticker price here is a bit under $27k. Your daughter would currently only qualify for $1k in merit (is the 3.46 her GPA on core academic classes?). But, because she automatically qualifies for a scholarship, she could then apply for their big scholarships, which max out at full tuition. Room & board is estimated to run just over $10k. Scholarships | University of Minnesota Morris
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Yâall are amazing. Thank you! To answer a previous question, sheâll be an adult by the time she goes so laws that pertain to minors wonât affect her anymore. But the trans friendly laws are important. For example, in Texas you can no longer change gender on driverâs license even with a court order and universities are prohibited from having DEI offices which negatively effects support services like finding a good gender inclusive housing situation. Sheâll have her own health insurance coverage.
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This is a very difficult situation for your child. Usually, I would say not to cosign loans, but in this case, it might be very important to your childâs mental health to get out of TX. Can you change the title to trans as opposed to LGBTQ, since this is important info relating to need to get out of TX.
That being said, if the budget really is as low as you say, your kidâs best college education may still be in state, doing the compressed associateâs degree with transfer agreement to UT Austin. The idea is to get as many accepted AP and CLEP credits as possible, then power through a community college degree in four semesters, starting the summer after high school, with transfer to UT Austin or another public in-state as a junior after one year of comm coll. They can then do two or three years at the UT school to get their BA. They could be out with their BA in as little as three years, for as little as seventy thousand in total, which is right about the total of what you can afford, plus their twenty seven thousand in federal loans, plus a bit of work. Plus itâs a side door into UT Austin, if the comm coll has a transfer agreement with them.
But I totally get it about them wanting to transition and have a state ID that matches their new identity. I just do not see how you can afford anything on a total budget of under seventy thousand for four years, out of state.
Truly evil, the way that politicians have focused on victimizing our most vulnerable youth to score political points. Your kidâs dilemma is a reminder of what life is like for trans young people in TX now. I never would have thought about the driverâs license until you brought it up.
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Some musings about schools in MN: I agree with those who say to at least consider UMN-Morris. It is in a rural/Red part of the state, but the campus is a liberal bubble. I have known a couple trans students who have gone there successfully. Academics were very good back in my day (I knew some tippy-top students who ended up there for financial reasons) but that was a long time ago, so you would need to really check that out carefully, because Iâm not sure anymore. Also check out UMN-Duluth, which is a good regional campus in a fun small LGBTQ+ friendly city. Both of these schools have gender-inclusive housing.
Then of course thereâs the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) metro area, which has a long and proud history of having a thriving trans presence. UMN-Twin Cities would have strong offerings in her majors, but not sure if you can get the price where it needs to be. Then there are the colleges that belong to the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities (ACTC) consortium: Macalester, Augsburg, Hamline, St Kateâs, and St. Thomas. You can attend one school, and major at another. Not sure how low you could get the COA however. There are a few full-tuition merit scholarships to be had. All of them (except for St Thomas I think) potentially have the right vibe.
Is your daughter pretty set on having a typical on-campus living experience? If not, the community colleges in the Twin Cities tend to have strong academics and reasonable prices. For example Normandale is good and has a nice LGBTQ+ community. Metro State is the Twin Citiesâ 4 year public commuter colleges, and is also LGBTQ+ friendly, and I believe tuition is <$10K even for OOS.
Portland OR is another metro area Iâm a little familiar with, and also has a thriving LGBTQ+ community. Portland State would be a fun school, but I donât think you can get COA to your goal. However the Portland Community College (PCC) network is also strong. Out-of-state tuition is not cheap, but from what I can tell it might be pretty easy to be counted as in-state (just a few forms of ID that show a local address, but that would need to be confirmed.)
Sorry to ramble. Best wishes to your daughter!
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Hey parentologist. I canât figure out how to change the title to say Trans instead of LGBTQ. I put LGBTQ at first because I wasnât sure how this community might respond to the Trans title, but yâall have been great, thank you. Weâll dive deeper into these school and consider the possibility of âpowering throughâ here. She would love the more traditional college experience, but she is also realistic and will make the best of it where ever she goes.
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Not parentologist, but updated the title from LGBTQ to Trans. Good luck to her!
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Definitely true -but not really relevant when state laws are the issue (which is usually the issue IME).
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I think it is important as the student has to live in that community for 4 years and the community may not be as accepting as blue parts of the state.
Does the student qualify for any other funds like military waivers (Yellow Ribbon, GI Bill transfer)? Does Texas have reciprocity with any other states for tuition breaks? I thought of that when looking at tuition for Metro State in Denver and saw the WUE rates. Metro is a nice (big) campus in downtown denver so definitely urban. It shares a campus with CU Denver and Denver Community College so the students can mix and match courses and may get a cheaper tuition bill. It is not a residential college but there are a few dorms.
I donât think the OP could get the cost below $20k/yr but the school does give some nice financial packages. To stay within budget, you may have to consider some urban schools that serve non-traditional students.
Is Missouri an option? It is a state that allows young adults to establish in-state residency more easily than other states.
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SUNY schools have everything, and the in-state cost is cheap. https://www.suny.edu/smarttrack/residency/#:~:text=At%20SUNYâs%20State-operated%20campuses,period%20of%20a%20particular%20term.
A person under twenty two can establish themselves as residents in state if they can prove one year of self-sufficient residence in NYS. So, if your child were willing to do it, they could move to anywhere in NYS the second after they finish high school, immediately get an ID, a job, a residence, and register to vote, and spend a year working, but then they would be in-state for tuition. They could then easily swing in-state at one of the SUNYs, many of which are very good, especially Stony Brook and Binghamton. Stony Brook will have a liberal, exurb of NYC atmosphere, will probably be accepting of a trans person. They can choose to move initially to a much, much cheaper area of NYS to establish residency.
You can massively fund 529s for the kid, so that the tuition assistance wonât be seen as support. You will lose kid on your taxes starting next year.
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I was thinking NY too⊠but I agree that establishing residency would be necessary to make it work.
City Year has a location in Buffalo - that could be one way to start getting established (thereâs also a location in NYC, but a lower cost of living area seems to make more sense), and SUNY Buffalo has a CogSci major that combines a lot of her interests, plus there are majors and minors in linguistics, philosophy, history, and psych. Another SUNY campus to potentially look at is Oswego - itâs the only one of the smaller, undergrad-only SUNYâs that has a linguistics major, and it also has CogSci and a combined Philosophy-Psychology major in addition to straight philosophy, psychology, and history. Itâs a bit more affordable than the SUNY research universities, gives merit, and has a robust co-op program that could help with the bottom line as well.
There may be other Americorps programs, in addition to City Year, that could be worth looking at as a funded way of transitioning to another state.
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Oh, thank you again for bringing up Americorpâs City Year program. It really does seem like a great option for kids who 1) want to experience a new part of the country 2) are open to a gap year 3) need some funds 4) want some structure/purpose.
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âLGBTQ friendlyâ or not is multidimensional. The various aspects may vary differently from one another:
- State laws and policies (listed by Movement Advancement Project linked above).
- Campus administrative policies (listed by Campus Pride Index, although many campuses are not listed at all).
- Friendliness in interactions on campus (subjective or survey-based ratings).
- Friendliness in interactions in the local community (subjective or survey-based ratings).
- Differences in friendliness to LGB and friendliness to T, and that can differ by gender as well (acceptance of LGB is often better for women, but acceptance of T is often worse for women).
A given student may have priorities different from some other given student.
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Like with Colorado mentioned above, this does require the student to live in New York for a year without parental support in order to acquire residency unless the parents also become New York residents.
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Missouri, like Texas, has a negative score on gender identity laws and policies (including relating to health care) as listed at Movement Advancement Project | State Profiles . Given that is the OPâs focus, Missouri is unlikely to be significantly more desirable than Texas to the OP on this matter.
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Do not move to Missouri
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Gee, I thought that self-sufficient, along with the link to SUNYâs requirements for proving just that, along with my instructions which included getting a job and a residence, was pretty clear, but thank you so much for pointing it out, lest they couldnât understand my post.
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SUNY Albany has a linguistics major, but of course it is a full university.
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All true, I was extrapolating a bit more to general âdonât want to go to red stateâ vibe. Laws matter, big time on some things.
For our family, abortion is a big issue for some personal /historical reasons. I think women of reproductive age are inherently unsafe in TX (and many other states) due to the handling of emergency care and lack of clarity on what is/isnât allowed etc. Others can certainly disagree on risk, but state law trumps any campus policy on that issue.
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