Are out of state colleges worth it?

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out of state tuition worth it

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There’s almost no situation where this is worth it unless there are scholarships being offered

For the overwhelming majority of careers, where you get your Bachelors degree does not matter.

For a small number of careers, where you get your Bachelors degree matters very much. Some examples....top tier private equity, investment banking, working for the top 3 consulting firms (Bain, Boston Consulting, McKinsey) and high level corporate strategy.

For some of these finance roles, going to a school like UVA, Texas or Michigan would open doors that LSU cannot.

For pre med, do not chase undergraduate prestige. Get the highest GPA possible at LSU, move heaven & earth to shadow doctors somewhere and kill it on the MCAT.

Not getting shot at a railroad crossing would make it worth to me.

The two scenarios where I think it makes more sense:

- Your in state flagships aren't very good and/or have limited reach in places you'd want to work. I don't think there are a lot of those situations.

- Your flagship in-state schools are out of reach. This is more controversial, but if you can't go to UGA in Georgia (or GT but it's obviously become more niche), you're going to be in a web of underachiever fun schools like GA Southern, big, soulless commuter schools like Kennesaw State and Georgia State, and often-oddball small colleges.

Contrary to popular belief I think undergrad choice can matter based on the circumstance. Not that you can't get a good education at Berry College, but going there vs. Clemson is probably going to impact your young adult path pretty heavily.

depends on the school and where you plan to live

for example...an engineering degree from GT maybe worth it over LSU if you plan to live in Atlanta

but for the most part, no. now finance and business and some of the other degrees...have specific schools that hold a lot of weight. but for the average person, especially one that wants to live in LA and is just getting tops and no scholarship to out of state....then no. you can go look up mid career earnings pretty quickly and see that.

now there are cases where schools like bama are giving full rides to out of state students...in cases like that...yea its worth it.

It depends.

Some programs have really nice facilities, world-renound faculty, an impressive alumni network, and useful internships.

Identify what matters most, create a grading rubric based on wants/needs, compare the in-state school and any out-of-state schools being considered, and make an infirmed decision.

Or ask the OT and be prepared for useless advice and rants about how not everyone needs to go to college/college is useless/there are too many institutions of higher learning/join the military/start trade school instead.

Depends on what state you are in.

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going to LSU

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Going to out of state schools decreases your chance of being a victim of rampant crime that persists in BR.

Can you really place a value on your child's life?

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How good does the school have to be to make out of state tuition worth it rather than going to LSU or another in state school. For a major that is useful such as pre med, finance, etc.

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Almost all State Universities offer some form of reciprocity tuition for students from neighboring states or states in a region that allows those students to pay in state or slightly higher in state tuition than a "traditional" out of state student. Most, if not all of these are based on an equal number of students going to the other state as those coming in from the neighboring state...for example for a kid in New Mexico going to school in Colorado there has to be a kid in Colorado going to school in New Mexico (my son went to UC Boulder from New Mexico and paid instate tuition). The student has to apply for this consideration and the slots are limited but there are usually enough slots to go around. It won't, as far as I know, work for cross country students but most regions have something similar.

There are also similar considerations for out of state students to pay in state tuition if their state does not have a school offering the degree program they plan to pursue. I know several kids from my sons high school class went to Texas schools and paid in state tuition because there wasn't a Vet program in New Mexico. Again, there has to be a slot available. New Mexico and Texas kind of have a gentleman's agreement that students from either state can go to the other state and pay in state tuition almost across the board but it is hit or miss.

In state scholarships are usually applicable in these situations. Not always but most lottery scholarships will pay instate tuition at an out of state school with a reciprocity agreement.

My son was a resident of New Mexico and Washington State while attending school in Boulder. He had the New Mexico tuition lottery and when we moved to Washington the Washington lottery which also included a living stipend. He paid in state tuition at Boulder through a reciprocity agreement with New Mexico and the Western Regional Agreement between Washington and Colorado. Had he not had this discount he'd a been fricked.

Finally the schools may not know about these agreements. I know that sounds counter intuitive but UC Boulder did not know, I had to bring it up. They may also be more interested in getting double the tuition for the arse in the desk, but I generally give people and institutions the benefit of the doubt.

My experience as someone who went to a top public high school in the Chicago burbs and then LSU for undergrad

The top 10% of students at LSU blow away your median student at a U of Iowa or Indiana U