By Marianna Cooper
<[email protected]>

I am applying to 12 universities, only two of which are in-state schools. Each time I share this information with a fellow senior, I hear the same response: “But those schools are so expensive!” Well, thank you, everyone, for your concern; I am fully aware of the tuition fees at out-of-state schools. Yet out-of-state schools should not be written off due to their tuition. Although the sticker price of a school can be intimidating, students should avoid partiality to either in-state or out-of-state universities. When broken down, tuitions of the two types of schools can actually be compared.

A common misconception labels colleges that do not offer merit-based scholarships as unaffordable. However, schools can still be affordable without merit-based aid or private scholarships. To compare the cost of in-state and out-of-state colleges, I will use Indiana University as a benchmark for in-state tuition. According to IU’s website, the cost of tuition and fees along with room and board range from $16,298 to $18,901, without automatic scholarship.

First, universities have been offering more need-based grants, according to the U.S. News & World Report (2011). Schools that range widely from location to prestige are offering need-based aid to a larger percentage of applicants. At Northwestern University, for example, 41 percent of students received grants based on need in the 2009 to 2010 school year. These grants lowered the average annual cost of tuition 50 percent to about $27,000. Although this twenty-some-thousand dollar price tag is still far larger than the in-state cost of IU, 50% off the cost of college is nothing to overlook. Furthermore, grants like these are not limited to one type of university. Pepperdine University, the University of Southern California, Vanderbilt University and the University of Miami, to name a few, have offered need-based financial aid to more than 40 percent of applicants.

To make up for the remaining $10,000 difference between the cost of IU and most out-of-state schools, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), also offers aid based solely on financial need. Any U.S. citizen enrolled in college will automatically qualify for a low-cost Stafford Student loan of at least $5,500 upon filing a FAFSA.

For those students at the top of their graduating class, Ivy League universities have cut their costs. In 2007, Harvard University capped family contribution to only 10 percent of the annual tuition for those households with income less than $180,000. Other Ivys, including Yale, Brown and Columbia soon followed suit.

For most families, though, neither Ivy League schools nor college loans are the favorable form of payment. When my older brother went through the college admissions and financial aid process two years ago, he was offered more aid from schools where he was qualified just over the average applicant to stand out. The universities wanted him at their school and communicated with my family to find a financial aid package that worked.

From this experience, I would advise students to take the chance and apply. Undoubtedly, the many applications and steps to maximizing financial aid contribute to a complicated process. Work through tedious financial aid applications. Communicate with financial aid advisers from your top-choice schools. The result may be a price that your family finds affordable. Finally, I would urge that seniors and their families would be neither partial to in-state nor out-of-state universities. The best financial fit for your education could lie in either category.