re: Are out of state colleges worth it?

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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.