UVa says they treat the IS and OOS pools separately. So, in general, OOS kids are not taking seats from IS kids. It is about 2 thirds instate /1 third out of state. How are other schools in other states operating in terms of admission?
UVA does not have merit other than Jefferson Scholars for top top applicants. UNC has merit for both in state and OOS but it is much easier to get it IS ( although certainly not easy). OOS merit is extremely competitive and is only offered to a select few. These schools have legal caps ( UVA is about 77% in state and 23% OOS +/-, UNC is 82% IS and 18% OOS). Are you saying that these public schools only accept OOS students who can be full pay, so IS would be need blind but OOS would not be? Giving FA to OOS students at state schools that meet full need is similar to schools such as Pitt, Ohio State, Michigan State etc giving merit to OOS students, yes?
Virginia taxpayers are important ( and I have been one for many years) but taxpayers are not the only ones funding state schools these days. Endowments, for instance, are important and some of the people contributing to that are no longer living in Virginia. The only concern I had as a full pay Virginia resident was the idea that more middle class type people had to take out loans if the EFC said they should be able to afford it full pay but many OOS /IS kids were not required to take out loans to help pay if they had lower EFC’s. I believe that has been addressed more recently and low and lower middle class kids are expected to take out minimal loans to help pay for their education. That seems fair.
Important to note- Jefferson Scholars (about 30 a year) are not funded by UVa. They are not tied to UVa admissions . The program is funded by the Jefferson Scholars Foundation, a private group. UVa gives primarily need based aid. Any “merit” aid from the Jefferson Scholars Foundation has nothing to do with UVa admissions or financial aid.
If I’m not mistaken, CA public schools offer need-based FA to OOS students to cost the cost of in-state tuition, but the students are still on the hook for the sizable OOS supplement. That seems reasonable to me.
Oh yes I forgot - thanks for bringing that up.
Starting in 2016, UCs will no longer give FA to OOS students.
Wouldn’t merit money to OOS publics also be funded by the taxpayers? Where I live, almost every single kid received significant merit to Ohio State, bringing the cost down to less than our IS public. Do these schools balance out the OOS full pay with the OOS merit kids so that the full pay from OOS are essentially paying for the OOS merit? Couldn’t the same be said for UVA/UNC? Some of the full pay from OOS are helping provide the FA to the OOS kids who receive it?
Some of these OOS publics get significantly more applications from out of state than in state.
UVa financial aid is primarily need based, like many schools (H, Y, P, etc.). I really am a little confused by some of the IS/OOS stuff. If my kids wanted to go to Michigan or Berkeley OOS, for instance, I am not sure why I shouldn’t have to pay a premium for that if they were OOS. I think the schools that are offering big merit may need to do that to be more attractive to the average OOS student?
Schools like Michigan Ann Arbor or University of Virginia or College of William and Mary or UC Berkeley attract top students from all over the country because their academic programs are amazing and they have much more prestige than many students’ ‘local’ state schools.
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Schools like UVA and UNC don’t accept many OOS students so it could be argued that their need based aid has a merit component.
Schools that want to bring in more OOS dollars should grow their enrollment so they don’t annoy the residents. But that may not be necessary if the school has a low rejection rate anyway.
“Schools like UVa” UVa is actually about 30 percent OOS and can be as much as 1/3 OOS. That is a significant number of OOS students. There are plenty of instate residents who would actually like to see the numbers of OOS students lower at UVa, W & M, and VT . Many instate students are turned away every year. But that is not going to change, especially given the decreased funding by the state.
@mom2collegekids “it could be argued that their need based aid has a merit component.”
UVa aid is primarily need based , although the university has toyed recently with adding merit . http://www.edcentral.org/uva-feels-pressure-become-active-merit-aid-arms-race/
D16 started with our two flagships. One seems to have a lot of murders and assaults, the other lost her with class sizes of 300 and classes taught by TA’s.
Both NPC’s indicated essentially no merit for her (3.85UW, 33 ACT). She wants to study a hard science, so the economic value is quantifiable, and she wanted a campus of 15000 or fewer students. That doesn’t happen here except for two commuter branches of the flagships.
ABET engineering is available for aher, OOS, at net of about ten k a year less than our in state options. At schools with all classes under 100, taught by faculty (not TAs), and with a campus vibe she likes.
That’s one data point.
FWIW, one is in Alabama, two are on Lake Superior.
For us it would be 1) scholarships/costs or 2) rank/prestige/fit balanced with cost
For us, Alabama was the ONLY affordable option for my high stat low income kid who wanted to study engineering.
Nothing in our state was even close to being affordable, and looking at the actual numbers of Pell students for those schools that are so supposedly great at meeting full need, their actual percentages were very, very poor.
All hat, no cattle, as the old saying goes.
@citymama9, Pitt was private until 1966, and its Oakland campus being contiguous with Carnegie Mellon’s probably has a lot to do with its feel. It’s a great option for those who want to go to an urban school.
That being said, as with Penn State, it’s still a pricey option for most Pennsylvania residents, when compared with a lot of OOS flagships throwing around big merit awards.
Yes, @LucieTheLakie, as we are in PA, I am sooooo glad University of Alabama was throwing around those big merit awards! 
Forever grateful to UA for such an incredible opportunity.
As far as the OP’s original questions, I found most of them to be totally irrelevant, at least for us.
Read Paying for the Party, @ClarinetDad16 .
Paying for the Party was also a CNN special, however not all students and publics are like that.