Hello! I’m a senior from Washington State looking into universities. I have an EFC between 10k and 15k, which makes most out-of-state public universities like UCLA (50K after aid) and UMich Ann Arbor (40K after aid) unworkable. However, using both the net price calculator on UW Madison’s website and the College Raptor net prixe calculator, both estimate that it’d only cost me around $15k to attend out of state, after around $50k in aid. Since no other out-of-state flagship I’ve found is like this, I’m wondering if anyone knows if this is a random glitch or if these numbers are an accurate representation of UW Madison’s out-of-state aid packages? Thank you so much!
UWisconsin doesn’t meet need for OOS applicants but does have a few, highly selective scholarships that can be awarded to OOS applicants. The same thing applies to tOSU. Typically it’d mean an applicant that is otherwise under represented in their application pool (which “being from the PNW” could be). If you really like it you can try but see it as a lottery ticket. 
The best financial aid will come from your instate public universities (and honors colleges if that applies) or “meet need” private colleges.
Run the NPC on Whitman, Pitzer, Occidental, UPugetSound, Lewis&Clark (for a variety on the West Coast) -Northwestern, UChicago, Grinnell, Carleton, Macalester, St Olaf, Kalamazoo, Denison, Case Western Reserve in the Midwest - etc.
(These represent various degrees of selectivity and different"vibes".)
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It may be too late but just in case, depending on your current income, you may want to check out Questbridge, a program that guarantees a 4-year full ride (tuition, fees, room, board, and incidentals) to the low income/high achieving students it selects. The deadline is in a couple days and the application is extensive, which is why I said it may be too late, but if your Commonapp application is quite advanced already you may be able to complete Questbridge.
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I only see a 2023-24 NPC on UWM’s site, so that won’t be accurate.
Contact them and ask if they have an updated one, but I would not expect you would receive full tuition in need based aid from there. UWM has the Banner program for OOS students who qualify for a Pell grant, but with an SAI (we don’t use EFC anymore) of $10k-15k you won’t qualify for a Pell grant. You can estimate your SAI here:
https://studentaid.gov/aid-estimator/
The SAI estimator is not yet updated for 2025-26.
Like myos1634 said you could receive some merit aid, but again, full tuition is unlikely and makes the school a high reach.
Do not use college raptor’s NPC’s.
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UVA and UNC meet need for OOS. W&M says they try to.
If you need to be $15k-ish and it’ll be more like $18-20k-ish if you have top stats and a test, look at Alabama, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State.
Or look at WUE schools.
When you have large need, if you want a large public, you have to trade off to schools that will ‘buy you in’ based on your stats, residency (hence WUE) or something else.
And of course you can apply to meets need privates but run the NPCs of the schools themselves to get real #s. Don’t use 3rd party sites.
Good luck.
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There are so many people who give outstanding advice on this forum. Here is a general concept that isn’t foolproof, but a good guide.
Full-pay students should seek OOS public universities because even at full-pay, most are less than $60k COA (UVA and UM are a little higher). The top private schools are $75k-$90k+ COA for full-pay students, and the top of the top schools don’t provide any merit aid.
On the flip side, students who qualify for financial aid often can attend the top private schools for much less than the OOS public prices. I am shocked at how little my nephew is paying for Notre Dame, and my son would have to pay full price. I don’t think it is fair, so I am encouraging my kids to attend OOS public schools. We live 30 minutes from our state flagship, and it isn’t top 100, so we don’t have the luxury of UDub.
For a student from Washington, UDub, WSU and Gonzaga are all fine choices, and I wouldn’t try to break the bank to attend UW Madison. WUE is also an option, but not sure of the student’s major, as that program has many exceptions.
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(side note: In Wisconsin, UWM refers to UWi Milwaukee. UWi Madison is simply “Madison.”)
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From the UW Madison Common Data Set:
Out of almost 8k freshman:
5880 applied for need based aid and only 2700 of those were given need based aid. Only 283 financial need students were given non need based aid. The average need based aid was 21k/yr.
Only 376 freshman students without need were given scholarships averaging about 8k/yr.
So yes some aid does happen but as you can see the percentages are low.
We are instate and it is a popular choice for our high school. However, none of my kids would even apply as they did not have a GPA high enough as its super competitive for instate.
This is great info, but do they break it down for in state vs. OOS students? OP is OOS and I don’t think Wisconsin gives financial aid to OOS, but I could be mistaken.
If you look at their website, it rightfully skews to protect in state students.
The $$ the OP showed don’t seem right but they were given that #. Assuming they filled the NPC properly it must be possible.
They might call financial aid and ask.
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