<p>Just curious to know if other states are much more affordable than here in California. Our public universities routinely rank in the top 50, but if they are not affordable to us, what good does that do us? The total in-state cost to attend UC Berkeley or UCLA would be approximately $32,000 ($13,200 tuition & fees, $14,500 room & board, $1500 books & supplies, $2000 personal). How does your state measure up?</p>
<p>Do you mean at list price or at net price after financial aid?</p>
<p>For example, Penn State has a $30,000 list price, but in-state financial aid is much worse than that of the UCs, so it is likely that a smaller percentage of PA students will be able to afford Penn State than CA students will be able to afford the UCs.</p>
<p>^^along those lines, one should compare the net COA vs the midpoint of the state incomes. For example, someone at the mid-point of income in California can attend a UC for zero tuition after need-based aid. </p>
<p>Well, list price to start, but generosity of financial aid certainly factors in, so discussion on that would be interesting as well… We would not have gotten any financial aid at a UC & there is not a lot of merit aid either, thus our D is 3000 miles away at a more generous school! </p>
<p>Here’s an article I just found - it looks like things are tough all over. I thought California might be the worst in this regard, but apparently not. I think we still might “win” in terms of room & board cost, as so many of our UC’s are in high cost-of-living areas (and often on cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean!), but suddenly our in-state tuition looks reasonable.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2014/10/28/10-colleges-where-in-state-students-pay-the-most-tuition”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2014/10/28/10-colleges-where-in-state-students-pay-the-most-tuition</a> </p>
<p>I admit to not having looked closely at cost of attendance (COA) figures since my kids graduated. But I did a little calculation (this for a <em>private</em> college, not public, which my older child attended – University of Chicago), and the figure has increased at a 5% compounded rate per year. It is now double the nominal COA that we paid in the year 1999-2000, from about $32K then to about $66K now. For comparison, if that cost had increased at the general inflation that $32K COA in 1999-2000 would have increased to ~$47K today. So the college cost increase has been more than twice what would be expected from general inflation alone during this 15 year period.</p>
<p>This is not news to parents and students attending college today, but I needed this perspective to understand how much things have changed, especially considering that despite the overall economy’s recovery since the pit of 2008, average incomes have hardly budged since then in real terms.</p>
<p>For a really long-term perspective, I compared the freshman-year costs at my own private undergrad institution (Reed), which were approximately $2,000 ($1240 tuition, $600 room and board, $50 fees – omitting transport) to the total cost today listed on the college’s website. The total COA listed today for 2014-15 is ~$62K (w/o transport), roughly a 30-fold increase. In that same period, general inflation alone would have made the cost about $16,000 in today’s dollars. So the actual cost today is nearly 4 times what it would be if those costs had only increased at the rate of general inflation. Then again, Reed was a very cheap college to attend in those days.</p>
<p>I would love to know what constitutes a state flagship. Do all states HAVE one?</p>
<p>Univ of Colorado/Boulder. Tuition room board fees sticker price is $24k; $27k for engineering; $29k for business. Books and personal would be extra.</p>
<p>High enough that out-of-state privates with merit aid can be comparable in net price.</p>
<p>@Alfonsia Here’s a link to Wiki list of flagship universities: <a href=“Category:Flagship universities in the United States - Wikipedia”>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Flagship_universities_in_the_United_States</a></p>
<p>UNC - CH (in-state) tuition and fees $8,374/year room and board $10,592/year the estimated total cost of attendance provided by UNC is $24,120 with all extras added in (including health insurance).</p>
<p>UMass Amherst is around $28K, a couple thousand more for the honors program. When I run the NPC, total household income including child support at $60K, I save $3000. So for us the honors program came to $26,500. Not really affordable but doable if need be. Its a good school or I wouldn’t even consider paying that amount. Hopefully one of the other 16 schools on the list will come in cheaper but that’s where are max OOP sits.</p>
<p>Our State Flagship for Wisconsin is Madison. Tuition is $10,410 and room/board is $8,600 to total $19,010. On their website they estimate books are 1,200, misc. (whatever that is) $3,214 and travel $1,042 for a Cost of Attendance of $24,466. When comparing schools for my kids I basically focused on the tuition and room and board cost as I felt the other amounts would be approximately the same. (Travel, of course, would change if you are far from home.) I am not sure if they charge more for certain majors. I am also not sure if most majors graduate in four years. I do know that for various reasons many engineering majors stay for 5.</p>
<p>Wisconsin and Minnesota have a reciprocity agreement where you would pay instate costs. My son went to University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. The costs this year are $13,626 tuition and $8,554 room/board, totalling $22,180. They also estimate $1,000 for books and $3,000 for misc. for a total cost of $25,180. I am not sure what Madison’s policy is, but at UMN any classes above 13 were “free”, meaning no more charge in tuition. My son ended up at UMN as they were more generous with merit scholarships bringing the tuition costs down quite a bit. I do know the cost of engineering was a little higher than some other majors, but my son (and most of his friends) graduated in 4 years.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>The state flagship for New Hampshire is the University of NH. It’s ballpark $30k including tuition, room and board and does not have generous financial aid at all. It’s much less expensive for our two boys to attend private LACS that are out of state. </p>
<p>I think it’s about 30k now. Never gave it a serious look because it was not going to work financially. </p>
<p>@mackinaw that Wikipedia list is a mess. U of North Tx and Houston are flagships with UT (and A&M)? Buffalo is the flagship of the SUNYs? The students at Bing and Geneseo may disagree. And apparently Wallace Hall Jr is now a flagship… 
PA and IL are known to have high costs for in-state students, never mind OOS.</p>
<p>In Texas, there are two schools that claim flagship status. UT’s cost of attendance is $25,800’s $27, 200. It varies some based on program of study. Texas A&M’s COA is $22,400 roughly. This includes tuition, fees, room and board and other expenses, including travel. It’s actually someone more complicated with the system schools but that’s the rough amount.</p>
<p>Univ of South Carolina COA is around 22k for in-state (11k tuition) per the website. However, any instate student who make B average or better in HS (very generally) gets assistance from state lottery - funded scholarship that can range from 5k - 10k a year, so for good students it will be less. Clemson is probably very close to this also. At USC high stat/GPA OOS students can get in-state tuition rate.</p>
<p>Feeling pretty grateful that UW and UMn are so (relatively) reasonable…</p>
<p>I think there are several states that have two (or more) schools of equal status: UCLA/Cal, Arizona/Arizona State, Florida/Florida state. Usually the ‘State’ college was a land grant school and had more offerings in the sciences and agriculture, but over the years have developed in all areas. At my kids’ school in Florida, there were probably an equal number of kids who picked FSU over UF (and UF was closer) and now a good number of them pick UCF.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone would think that someone didn’t go to the ‘flagship’ if the student picked William and Mary over UVa, or UCLA over Berkeley.</p>
<p>Texas a&m is not a flagship of the state of Texas univ. It does not even carry the name Univ of Texas.</p>