re: Does LSU not give a crap about smart, in-state high school students?

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You're not the only one. Many kids go out of State on full academic scholarships.

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A full scholarship to me means everything as in tuition, books, food, room, and all fees. You don’t come out of pocket for anything. There are very few of those. You might get 100% tuition, but you still have to pay $15-20K a year on living expenses.

We are in state, oldest currently at LSU as a presidents alumni scholarship winner. Sadly LSU only offers roughly 20 full paid academic scholarships per year for 7000 freshmen. He had plenty of choices out of state however he gets a hefty refund every semester. And if gradual school is considered it’s conventional wisdom to go the cheaper route for undergrad.

The financial package at Ivy League and other top tier private schools is based on household income. So a kid may get in but graduate with six figures of debt.

Higher Ed is a business.. education is lost in the whole thing these days. Out of state, just brings them more $$.

Why admit top minds that get full rides or money on top? When you can admit middle of the road students and they have to float the entire bill or OOS and it doubles.

Your kid isn’t special

Unless the kid has athletic skills, LSU would be on autopilot to acceptance. With that ACT score, TOPS pays for tuition, and another LSU automatic scholarship may kick in just on ACT scores alone. So not much marketing needs to be made, other schools will have to find ways to stand out knowing that LSU will always have that financial edge with TOPS and other school scholarships that kick in based on ACT scores.

This year with a 32 act, 4.7 GPA lsu offered 56k total that is including tops. Not enough to cover 2 years of school

When LSU hired Marie as the Dean of Students and Jose as head of admissions , the focus switched from in state student to DEI out of state students. The grant and scholarship money followed. Neighboring SEC schools took advantage and began recruiting heavily, as well as offering competitive scholarships. All three of my kids received the President’s Scholarship at Alabama. None of them accepted it , but if they had they would have paid less out of pocket to attend Alabama than LSU. They all went LSU. Two graduated Summa Cum Laude and the third is still in school. LSU provided the education but has done little to nothing to assist them in anyway. Their priority is NOT retaining the best students of Louisiana. Their priority is NOT focusing on Louisiana students in general. But if you graduate high school in California, Arizona, or New Mexico they will waste all of the public money they have recruiting you and trying to help you graduate. The legislative auditor issued a report two years ago on this practice. The result is exactly what you thought it would be. Most of those kids don’t stay four years /graduate. LSU never recoups the money. Of the ones who graduate , very few remain in Louisiana so the state never realizes the benefit of the investment in education.