UCONN or Penn State?

DreamingOutLoud
Sun, 18 Jan 2009 23:50:20 +0000

"A major purpose for State schools to accept OOS students is to get more money from them, not giving them aid.

With Penn State OOS tuition alone at $25K, your COA will probably end up at least 3X higher than UCONN. They are arguably academically equivalent and both have strong collegiate sports teams. UCONN has made huge investments in infrastructure in the past few years, and it would be hard to get more bang for the buck.

Hopefully you applied to enough private schools that may provide you with real alternatives to UCONN and still offer good aid. Slightly more selective school like BC, Vanderbilt or USC that give out of lot of aid may be better options. Going to a public school OOS is hardly ever worth it."

You and many others offered me a good amount of insight on the cost of attending an OOS flagship. Not one person said there’s a good possibility of me getting aid that would make it cost the same as UCONN. If that’s the case, I think I’ll stay in state. I have applied to 9 private schools though, including BC so I’ll have other options when it comes to financial aid.