(For the USA) Why is in-state tuition usually a lot cheaper then out-of-state tuition, do they not want people from different states to go to their university, and is this limited to state universities or any universities.
In: Other
In-state tuition is cheaper for public schools, because they are primarily funded by the tax dollars of people who live in that state. So those state’s residents get a discount on the cost of the college, because they’ve already been paying for it via their taxes.
Public universities are funded overwhelmingly by state tax dollars.*
Parents of that state, who’ve been paying taxes to that state, get a discount on their children’s education from the public institutions within that state.
*Adding a correction on this; my point is that the tax money funding the actual undergraduate programs comes from the states. The Feds obviously chip in, but a huge fraction of the Fed allotment goes to graduate-level research instead of undergraduate-level education.
Obviously tuition is the major breadwinner these days, but the only thing to offset tuition funding is state funding, so the states reserve the discount for the people who’ve actually paid taxes to those individual states.
First, a clarification:
In-state tuition is usually cheaper at certain universities that are funded and run by the state. It’s a specific benefit to the taxpayers of that state. We usually call these “state schools.” Most of them have names like “The University of STATE” or “STATE NAME State” but the names can be confusing at times. (The University of Connecticut is a state school. Connecticut College is private.)
“In-state” tuition isn’t a thing at private universities.
So for example: you live in Connecticut. You can pay the in-state rate to attend one of Connecticut’s state schools… the University of Connecticut, Western Connecticut, etc. But if you want to attend Yale (which is also in Connecticut) you don’t get a break for being a local.
Sometimes, state-run universities will offer the in-state rate to students from other nearby states as a way of boosting enrollment. Western Connecticut – which is right near the border between Connecticut and New York – offered in-state tuition rates to students from New York a while ago. (I don’t know if that’s still true.)
The idea, for state schools, is that if you go to university in your home state you are more likely to live in the state when you graduate so the difference in cost will be made up as you pay taxes and contribute to the state economy through your carrier.
In the US, there are both ‘private’ and ‘public’ colleges. Private universities are just that, privately funded. Public universities are typically funded in part by money from the state. In some cases, even the land they were built on was a gift from the state.
Typically that money comes with a mandate that the university serve the population of the state. In most cases, that takes the form of lower tuition for students that reside in that state. Possibly also admissions quotas.
This doesn’t mean that these schools *don’t want* students from other states. Since those students are paying higher rates, state universities are typically very interested in advertising to out-of-state or international students.
State residents contribute to the funding of state universities through their tax dollars. Since they are indirectly paying for their education, students who have been residents get a discount compared to non-residents who have not paid taxes in that state.
This is just for public state universities, and the reasoning is that in-state residents have been paying taxes to fund the university system so get a tuition break vs. somebody who didn’t already pay taxes toward the university since their tax dollars went elsewhere.
Others have answered the in-state tuition question.
As to whether schools want students from other states, they do. State schools will often extend scholarships or awards to out-of-state students in order to be competitive with the schools in the state where the student resides.
Many state schools are required to accept in-state students who meet certain criteria. Recruiting out-of-state students gives them more control over acceptance criteria for those students. If 50% of students have automatic admissions and an average SAT score of 1100, and the school’s goal is 1150, they can recruit out-of-state students with higher SAT scores to raise the average.
Out-of-state and foreign students can also help schools meet diversity goals if the State’s demographics don’t support their objectives.
There is often a different tuition for students in their home country vs foreign students as well. It is the same as state universities, if one’s taxes have gone to subsidize the university than there is a discount for tuition.
Basically its the same idea as public vs private schools for K-12. By virtue of being a resident of that state, a benefit is that taxpayer dollars are pooled together to help subsidize your undergrad some. But if you elect to go to a private college or go out of state you just forfeit that benefit.
Going to an out of state public school is basically the cost of going to a private school. You don’t get any special subsidies other than scholarships.
Latest Answers