Main content
Course: Personal finance > Unit 9
Lesson 1: Introduction: Paying for college- Sal Khan's story: Paying for college
- Overview: Paying for college
- Best strategies for funding college
- 4 Most Important Considerations in Analyzing College Costs
- What to do when parents are divorced, and in situations with step-parents, foster care, etc.
- How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid?
- Cost of in-state vs out-of-state tuition
- Watch out for scholarship displacement!!
- A message to parents on paying for college
- Timeline: Paying for college
© 2024 Khan AcademyTerms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Notice
Cost of in-state vs out-of-state tuition
Public universities often offer substantial discounts to in-state students, making them an affordable option. However, out-of-state tuition can be costly, especially as public schools may meet less of your demonstrated financial need and offer more loans than grants. Surprisingly, private colleges can sometimes be a cheaper alternative than out-of-state public schools.
Want to join the conversation?
Why is out-of-state (and international) tuition more? I see many colleges claiming they support diversity, but this isn't making them more diverse by being "affordable" to just in-state students.(3 votes)
Hi Jon,
In-state tuition is offered at state-run universities. The simple answer as to why it is cheaper because it is only available to residents (people who live in the state in question). Residents are assumed to pay taxes, therefore they (and/or their parents) are seen as having already paid part of the tuition through past years taxes. Another way of looking at it is that the taxpayers of a certain state want to help pay for the educations of their own children, but not children from out of state (since they think the people from that other state should pay for those children).
Hope that helps explain it!(9 votes)
"Consorshum" is a word?(2 votes)
It's spelled consortium and it's basically a union/partnership between several professionals or professional institutions(9 votes)
- At the ending of the video, what private is she referring to like in state or out ?(3 votes)
In-state, since out-of-state private universities would be more expensive than both of them.(4 votes)
Some states have programs to allow citizens go to colleges in neighboring states at reduced rates, how common is that and how does it work?(2 votes)
it works by where u live and how get they and not easy to found near us(2 votes)
What about in-town or out-of-town tuitions?(1 vote)
That may apply to things like a community college (if these are not covered in a larger "state-based" system). When I was a community college student in Los Angeles many decades ago, I learned that residents of cities that did not "pay into" the Los Angeles Community College district were not admitted, or had to pay market rate tuition. In a similar way, because Los Angeles is surrounded by many independent cities, I could not attend the community colleges in those areas for free. BUT, in some other states, the community colleges are funded by the state government, not the city one. So, check the nature of funding of the college to which you intend to apply. Then you'll know.(3 votes)
It costs a lot to do out of state tuition nowadays if you're planning on going to college far away(1 vote)- It costs a lot to do in-state tuition now, too. If you're from a "little state" (like Rhode Island), everyplace is near. If you're from Texas or California, there is a lot of stuff far away without leaving the state.
When cost is the concern, you might want to consider starting at a community college, to keep your costs down for the initial two years. You might also want to consider an accredited online program available through the University of the People or Saylor.org These would not offer you the "4-years-of-life-in-the-dormitory" experience, though.(1 vote)
Video transcript
- So, for a lot of students, public universities and
colleges within their state are going to be the
cheapest schools for them because states are going to
give substantial discounts to students who reside within their state. And in addition, there are a number of consortiums
of public universities within various regions
in the United States, so there's, for instance, the
Western Undergraduate Exchange which is a consortium of
public schools in the west that give students in that entire region good price discounts. However, one thing you have
to be really careful about is that if you are looking
at public universities or colleges outside of your state, you will not get these price
discounts for in-state tuition. Therefore, public schools out of state can actually be the most
expensive schools for students, because number one, you're
paying out-of-state prices. Number two, public schools
are the schools, often, that are going to meet a lesser percentage of your demonstrated financial need. And number three, often, public schools are the schools that are
gonna give more of their money away in the form of loans that you have to pay back at interest instead of money in the form
of grants and scholarships, which you don't have to pay back. So what's interesting is that sometimes, private colleges and universities can be a cheaper alternative for students than public out-of-state schools.