According to a new report from John Burton Advocates for Youth (JBAY), College Cash Uncovered, there are significant discrepancies between colleges’ published cost of attendance (COA) budgets and the actual expenses students face. These discrepancies contribute to college affordability challenges and inadequate financial aid. This leaves some students with financial gaps of $10,000 or more.

John Burton Advocates for Youth (JBAY) is a nonprofit organization that focuses on improving the lives of youth who have experienced foster care or homelessness. They work on policy advocacy and providing resources to at-risk youth, including stable housing, education, healthcare and financial support. The organization tries to address higher education access, financial aid and foster youth transitions into adulthood.

What Is The Cost OF Attendance?

A college’s cost of attendance, or COA, is supposed to measure the total annual college costs for a student to attend the college. Each college may have a different cost of attendance.

The cost of attendance includes both direct and indirect costs. Direct costs are paid to the college, while indirect costs are not. The distinction does not matter much for families, since they have to pay both direct and indirect costs, and financial aid eligibility is based on the combination of direct and indirect costs. But, some colleges and trade groups emphasize just the direct costs, especially when trying to convince people that college costs have not increased.

The cost of attendance (sometimes called a student budget) includes allowances for the following costs.

• Tuition And Fees
  
• Housing And Food (also known as Room and Board): The housing allowance for college owned or operated housing must be based on the average or median housing charges, whichever is greater. The allowance for food must provide the equivalent of three meals a day.
  
• Books, Supplies, Course Materials, and Equipment: This includes an allowance for a personal computer, in addition to textbooks and educational materials.
  
• Transportation: The transportation allowance must cover the cost of commuting between school, home and work. The transportation allowance does not include the cost of buying a car, just the incremental cost of transportation.
  
• Personal Expenses: Personal expenses include laundry, clothing, toiletries and personal needs.
  
• Other Costs: Other costs can include dependent care costs, disability-related expenses, study abroad expenses and loan fees for federal loans but not private loans. It can also include the cost of professional licensing and certification and the cost of first-professional credentials. Dependent care costs include but are not limited to class time, study time, field work, internships and commuting time.
  

The cost of attendance is used to determine eligibility for need-based financial aid. Financial need is defined as the difference between the cost of attendance and the student aid index. The Student Aid Index (SAI) was previously known as the Expected Family Contribution (EFC).

Related: Financial Aid Calculator

What Are The Problems With The Cost Of Attendance Calculations?

The key issue is that some allowances in the cost of attendance differ from actual student expenses.

For example:

• Colleges tend to routinely underestimate allowances for textbooks and transportation.
• Some of the cost of attendance allowances are averages, as opposed to actual costs. Students from at-risk populations often have above-average costs.
• The accuracy of cost allowances is often unreliable. In many cases, colleges use outdated figures adjusted only by a standard inflation rate over the years, which fails to capture actual cost increases. At nearly a third of colleges, the non-tuition costs have not been adjusted for inflation at all. Additionally, allowances for off-campus housing often underestimate true costs, especially since rent is typically higher in college towns.

Furthermore, many expenses are omitted from the cost of attendance:

• Many fees are not included in the allowance for tuition and fees, such as technology fees, activity fees, athletic fees, orientation fees, health center fees, library fines, lab fees, transcript fees and graduation fees.
  
• Technology costs, such as computers, software and peripherals are often omitted from the cost of attendance.
  
• Allowances for transportation often omit the cost of parking, insurance and maintenance.
  
• Housing allowances often omit the cost of utilities (electricity, heating, telephone, internet), renter’s insurance and security deposits. There may also be fraternity and sorority dues.
  
• The cost of attendance also does not include the cost of health insurance, insurance deductibles, copays and over-the-count medicine.
  
• Colleges routinely omit allowances for dependent care and disability expenses. Students must know to ask for these allowances.
  

It's also important to point out that even the cost of tuition may not be finalized until after students have had to accept enrollment. Many colleges don't finalize their exact tuition costs until June or July of the year, depending on the fiscal calendar. And since college prices tend to rise 3-5% per year, this can also create inaccurate estimates.

The JBAY report points out that cost of attendance budgets often fail to consider regional variations and the unique needs of diverse student populations, such as childcare or disability-related costs.

This results in a misleading representation of the real financial burden on students.

Bad Cost Estimates Harm Students

The JBAY report identifies discrepancies between colleges’ published cost of attendance (COA) budgets and the actual expenses students face. Underestimating actual living costs makes college unaffordable for many students, especially those from at-risk populations with limited financial resources.

Discrepancies in Cost of Attendance (COA) Budgets

Many colleges significantly underestimate the actual expenses faced by students, particularly for low-income, foster youth and other vulnerable groups. There is a wide gap between the published cost of attendance figures and the true costs for housing, food and transportation, especially in high-cost regions. This discrepancy results in a much heavier financial burden than is reflected in the college’s official cost of attendance estimates. 

According to the report, over half of colleges use cost of attendance budgets that fail to account for the actual expenses, with underestimations sometimes exceeding $10,000 per year. Many students face food and housing insecurity and are unable to absorb discrepancies in the college cost of attendance, further exacerbating their financial hardships.

Disproportionate Impact On Vulnerable Students

The inaccurate cost of attendance estimates disproportionately harm low-income students, who often struggle to cover the true costs despite receiving financial aid. 

The standardized cost of attendance budgets fail to consider the unique circumstances of foster youth and students without family support, who lack access to parental housing during school breaks. The unmet need for former foster care students is nearly double that of their peers.

Additionally, students with children have substantially greater expenses than the costs included in the college’s student budget. These inaccurate estimates result in severe financial stress, making it difficult for these students to succeed and persist in their academic pursuits.

Lack Of Transparency In Calculating Non-Tuition Costs

Many colleges do not disclose how they calculate non-tuition costs within the cost of attendance budget, nor do they proactively inform students about the process for requesting an adjustment based on actual expenses.

This lack of transparency makes it difficult for students to appeal for a higher cost of attendance, even when their expenses exceed the college’s estimates. Additionally, there can be significant variations in non-tuition cost estimates among colleges in the same geographic region.

Inadequate Financial Aid

The underestimates of actual college costs lead to lower financial aid offers that do not meet the students’ actual financial need. 

The financial aid gaps make college unaffordable for many low-income and middle-income families, forcing them to work excessive hours, borrow from private student loan programs, and enroll part-time instead of full-time.

Ultimately, these financial pressures increase the likelihood that the students will drop out of college.

Key Recommendations

The JBAY report makes several recommendations for better aligning cost of attendance estimates with actual student expenses. This will help bridge financial gaps and support student success.

• Colleges need to improve the accuracy of cost of attendance calculations.
  
• The calculation of non-tuition expenses like housing, books and transportation must be standardized, with consideration of local and regional cost differences.
  
• Colleges must enhance the support for students needing financial aid adjustments and ensure that the adjustments reflect the student’s specific circumstances.
  
• Financial aid awards must be increased to cover the gap between the cost of attendance and the student’s ability to pay.
  
• The financial aid application and award process must be streamlined to avoid introducing barriers to college access and success.
  

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Being placed on a college admissions waitlist can create a mixed bag of emotions for applicants. On one hand, it isn’t an outright rejection, but on the other, it can feel as though you're being left on the sidelines.

After all the effort you’ve put into essays, interviews, and extracurriculars, being placed on a waitlist can be discouraging and frustrating. But understanding how a waitlist actually functions—and more importantly, what your odds of getting in might be—can help ease some of that uncertainty and inform your next steps.

In this article, we’ll dig into how the college waitlist process works, factors that influence acceptance from a waitlist, and what you can do to improve your chances. We’ll also look at real data from UC Berkeley's 2022 admissions cycle to give you a sense of how waitlist odds play out in reality.

What Is A Waitlist And Why Do Colleges Use It?

Each year, college admissions teams face the unpredictable exercise of identifying exactly how many of the students they admit will actually enroll. This is known as the “yield rate,” and it’s a critical metric for colleges who consistently look to fill their incoming classes without overshooting or leaving seats empty. To manage this, admissions teams sometimes turn to offering certain qualified applicants a spot on their waitlist. Over the next few months, a portion of admitted students will decline their offers. This means enrollment spots open up and waitlisted students can get a chance at admission.

Each college uses their waitlist differently. However, waitlists are typically created in the spring (after March or April), after initial acceptance letters have been sent out. Once waitlisted students receive their official admissions decision, they’re often asked whether they’d like to remain on the waitlist. If you’re on the waitlist, you’re typically required to confirm your interest by filling out a form or sending a letter to the admissions office. This signals your ongoing commitment to the school, which can be a factor if spots open up.

Odds Of Being Accepted From A Waitlist

The question of the hour is this: What are the odds of actually getting in if I’m waitlisted?

Unfortunately, waitlist odds are generally low, particularly at highly selective schools. According to data from the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), highly selective colleges tend to have waitlist acceptance rates below 10%, while more moderately selective schools may have rates hovering around 20%. In most cases, students should approach a waitlist offer with cautious optimism—it’s an opportunity, but one with no guarantees.

UC Berkeley Example: 2022 Waitlist Statistics

To understand how this process plays out, let’s look at a real-world example. In 2022, UC Berkeley, one of the most competitive schools in the University of California school system, offered 7,001 qualified applicants a place on its waitlist. Out of those, 4,820 students decided to accept the offer and remain on the waitlist. In the end, 1,191 of those who were originally waitlisted were admitted.

This means about 17% of the students waitlisted at UC Berkeley ultimately gained admission. While this might sound promising, remember that Berkeley is a large public university with higher enrollment needs. Many private, highly selective institutions admit far fewer students from their waitlists each year—sometimes it’s fewer than 5% or none at all.

Factors That Affect Waitlist Acceptance Rates

Each college’s approach to managing its waitlist is unique, but a few common factors can influence whether a waitlisted student ultimately gains admission:

• Yield Rates: If a college’s yield rate—the percentage of admitted students who enroll—is lower than anticipated, they may need to admit more students from the waitlist. For example, if a significant number of students decline their offer of admission in favor of other schools, more spots open up for waitlisted students. Schools with unpredictable or low yield rates are more likely to lean on their waitlists to fill classes.
• Demonstrated Interest: Some schools consider a student’s ongoing interest in attending when determining who to admit from the waitlist. By sending a letter of continued interest, updating the admissions office on recent achievements, or even just filling out a confirmation form promptly, you can show that you’re committed to attending if accepted. In competitive admissions environments, this level of demonstrated interest can make a difference.
• Class Composition Goals: Admissions teams strive to create a balanced and diverse incoming class, not only in terms of demographics but also in terms of academic interests, geographic distribution, and extracurricular talents. If the initial admitted pool is short on a particular type of student—say, musicians or applicants from a certain state—a college may look to the waitlist for candidates who fit that profile.
• Institutional Priorities: Each college has specific goals and strategic priorities that influence admissions decisions. For example, a college expanding its computer science department may give waitlist preference to students with strong interest in STEM. Similarly, a college that values geographical diversity might prioritize out-of-state or international students from the waitlist if enrollment from those groups is lower than expected.

The Emotional Reality Of Being Waitlisted

Getting waitlisted is an emotional experience. It can feel like you’re stuck in a state of limbo, waiting on a response that could alter your future. However, being waitlisted isn’t necessarily a reflection of your skills and qualifications. In many cases, it’s simply a matter of space. Keep in mind that admissions teams regularly report having far more qualified applicants than they have spots available for.

Steps To Take If You’re Waitlisted

If you’re on a waitlist, it’s important to stay proactive while managing expectations. Here are some steps you can take to maximize your chances of being admitted:

• Confirm Your Interest: Most schools ask students on the waitlist to confirm whether they’re still interested in attending. Make sure to complete this process as soon as possible, as this can signal your eagerness to enroll.
• Write a Letter of Continued Interest: A letter of continued interest, sometimes called a LOCI, can help bolster your case. Your letter should be concise but genuine. Use it to reiterate your interest in the school, explain why it’s a top choice for you, and update the admissions team on any significant accomplishments since you submitted your application, such as awards, grades, or new extracurricular involvement.
• Update with Relevant Information: If you have new SAT/ACT scores, a recent achievement, or additional academic updates, consider sending them to the admissions office. Some schools welcome updates, while others don’t; it’s a good idea to check the school’s policy to avoid overstepping.
• Accept an Offer Elsewhere: Since a waitlist offer doesn’t guarantee admission, it’s wise to secure your place at another college by their deposit deadline. This way, you’ll have a guaranteed spot for the fall, and you won’t feel pressured if the waitlist offer doesn’t materialize.

Should You Appeal Your Waitlist Status?

In some cases, applicants might wonder if they should reach out to appeal their waitlist status. However, it’s generally not recommended. Admissions teams are accustomed to receiving additional information from waitlisted students, and contacting them repeatedly could be perceived negatively. The best approach is to follow their guidelines, provide any requested updates, and let your application speak for itself.

Final Thoughts on Waitlist Strategies

While being waitlisted is often disappointing, it’s important to remember that many students do get admitted from a waitlist. Also try to consider the bigger picture of why waitlists exist, then focus on what you can do to set yourself up for future success. Staying focused on presenting yourself as a committed, well-qualified candidate will speak for itself.

Ultimately, college is just one chapter in your educational journey. Whether or not you gain admission from a waitlist, your college experience—and your potential for success—isn’t limited by one decision. Embrace your options, make the most of the college experience that welcomes you, and remember that no matter where you go, it’s your passion, resilience, and curiosity that will carry you forward.

College applications present students with a challenging and time-consuming project — perhaps the largest they have faced in their lives. As a parent, you can help your child manage the process, but you can also hurt their chances if you make the wrong moves.

Here’s a collection of college admissions secrets that can help you craft the ideal college list, get your child into schools they love, and choose one that you’ll be able to afford.

Use The Pick-Three Approach

Too often, a teenager gets their heart set on just one dream college. It’s that college or none in their view. But, if they don’t get into their dream college or can’t afford its price tag, it can lead to severe disappointment and even depression.

About a quarter of high school seniors do not get into their first-choice college. Of those who do get into their first-choice college, a quarter do not enroll. According to the American Freshman survey conducted by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute in 2019, only about 55% of college freshmen said they were enrolled in their first-choice college. But that number increased to about 93% for those who were enrolled in their first-, second-, or third-choice college.

Instead of focusing on just one college, parents should encourage their children to pick three favorite colleges at different price points and apply to those. That way, students are more likely to get into a college that they want to attend and that their parents can afford.

Related: What Is The Average Cost Of College?

Assess Academic Fit

Academic fit measures the extent to which a student’s academic performance is typical for the college’s general student body.

Most colleges’ websites will include information about the 25th and 75th percentiles for their freshman class’s SAT and ACT scores. You can use that range to determine if a college is a match, reach, or safety school for your student. 

• If your child’s test scores are between the 25th and 75th percentiles, the college is a match.
• If your child’s test scores are below the 25th percentile, the college is a reach, and your child is very unlikely to be admitted.
• If your child’s test scores are above the 75th percentile, the college is a safety school and your child is very likely to be admitted.

Craft a preliminary list of colleges that includes mostly match schools but also a few safety and reach schools. Don’t apply only to reach schools, as there’s a good chance your child won’t get into any of them. 

Related: How To Craft A College List For Academic Fit

Consider Financial Fit

Students too often apply to a college that is more expensive than their parents can afford, which will burden both the student and parents with too much education debt. But it’s actually fairly easy to determine if a school makes financial sense for your family.

Use a college’s net price calculator to get a personalized estimate of its one-year net price. The net price is the difference between total college costs and gift aid, which consists of grants and scholarships. That difference represents the amount you will have to contribute from savings, income, and education debt to pay for a school.

Once you know a college’s net price, you can determine if it’s a financial fit by using my college affordability index, which is the ratio of a college’s one-year net price to your total annual income. If the one-year net price is more than a quarter of your total annual income, your family will likely have to go into an unaffordable amount of debt to pay for the college.

A few other tips for keeping college costs down include:

Look At In-State And No-Loan Schools

An in-state, public college will often be among the least expensive postsecondary education options out there. Encourage your child to include at least one in-state college on their shortlist.

Colleges with generous “no loans” financial aid policies, which replace loans with grants in the financial aid package, are also among the more affordable options. But most of these colleges have a minimum student contribution or summer work expectation, which limits the amount of financial aid that low-income students will actually receive.

Related: Free Tuition Colleges: What You Need To Know

Apply For Financial Aid For The First Year

If the college has need-sensitive admissions, don’t skip applying for financial aid and think you can wing it for a year. Often, colleges with need-sensitive admissions policies will not provide grants to students who didn’t apply for financial aid as freshmen unless the student can demonstrate a significant change in financial circumstances.

And apply to a few colleges that use the FAFSA for awarding their own financial aid funds, not just colleges that require the CSS Profile. There can be significant differences in the financial aid packages among the two types of colleges.

Apply Early; Avoid Early Decision

Too many students wait until the last minute to submit their college applications. But a lot of things can go wrong if a student waits until the deadline to submit. Submitting an application early can help your child stand out and demonstrate that they are genuinely interested in the college.

But don’t apply early decision to any college. Early decision commits your child to enrolling if they are admitted, and you should never commit to a college before you’ve even seen the financial aid package it will offer. If you discover that a college is genuinely unaffordable, you may be able to break the early decision commitment, but it won’t be a comfortable conversation with the admissions committee.

Strive For A Balanced Profile

The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) runs an annual survey in which it asks college admissions officers about the most critical applicant characteristics they look for during the college admissions process.

These criteria generally fall into three groups:

• The most important factors are typically a student’s grades, the strength of their high school curriculum, and their entrance exam scores.
• Important factors include a student’s character and personality, essays, demonstrated interest, and recommendations from counselors and teachers.
• Among the least important factors are usually a student’s class rank, extracurricular activities, interview, and work experience.

The purpose of assessing a college application is to determine whether the student is capable of academic success at the college. Students with good high school GPAs and high standardized test scores are more likely to graduate from college.

But, at the most selective colleges, the impact that a 1500 SAT score versus a 1600 SAT score will have on an admissions committee’s decision may be minimal. These colleges instead rely on non-academic factors to differentiate among their top applicants.

When two students have comparably strong grades and test scores, admissions factors that are normally considered less important — like who engages in more impressive extracurricular activities — suddenly become deciding factors.

But depth matters more than breadth. It is better to do one thing well for many years than many things superficially for a shorter period of time. So don’t spread your child too thin with their extracurriculars, and help them choose activities that they are passionate about and/or that can make a difference in your community.

Properly Prep For Tests

Entrance exams have a big impact on college admissions, especially at second-tier institutions.
Practicing can help improve a student’s entrance exam scores. It teaches them test-taking strategies and reduces the likelihood that they’ll freak out on the day they take the test. Diagnostic tests can also identify weaknesses, where a little practice can improve your performance and help eliminate careless errors. A gain of 50 to 100 points on the SAT is not uncommon with some practice.

Good study guides with practice tests include those issued by Barron’s and the Princeton Review. These books also teach test-taking strategies and approaches to answering particular types of questions. You can also get official SAT practice tests through Khan Academy. You can also hire tutors to help your student prepare for the entrance exams. 

What Is A Test-Optional College?

A test-optional college considers standardized test scores if provided, but doesn’t require them. That’s different from a test-blind college, which does not consider standardized test scores, even if they’re provided by the student.

Students who have a good SAT score or a good ACT score (or both) have an advantage with test-optional college admissions committees. 

Demonstrate Interest

Colleges don’t want to accept students who aren’t sincerely interested in attending their institutions, since that lack of interest may negatively affect a college’s yield (the number of students who ultimately enroll). Just as students get nervous about whether they will or will not get in, college admissions officers get nervous about whether their admitted applicants will or will not accept their offers of admission.

Demonstrated interest provides the college admissions office with a way of predicting whether a student will enroll if admitted, as students who interact more with the college are more likely to enroll.

Some of the best ways to demonstrate interest include: 

• Visiting the campus, e.g., going on a campus tour, staying overnight in the dorm, or sitting in on classes
  Using the college’s website and following the college on social media
• Participating in virtual events
• Asking questions at college fairs and financial aid nights

Sending thank-you notes to admissions officers also helps. But don’t overdo it.

Speak-Write The Essays

If your child has trouble writing essays, have them answer the essay prompt aloud while recording the answer, then transcribe the recording. This works because most people speak at about 100 to 200 words per minute but can write or type at about 40 words per minute. So, the act of writing interferes with the flow of thought. Answering the question aloud will yield a more fluid and passionate essay, making it more interesting.

After you’ve transcribed the recording, create an outline from the transcript. This will help organize your child’s thoughts and add structure to the essay. Keep the following in mind while developing the outline.

Lead With The Best Stuff

Admissions committee members have just 10 minutes to go through a student’s entire application, and they may not read more than the first paragraph of a student’s essay. So, the reader’s attention needs to be hooked early on.

When creating the outline, go through the transcript and pick out the most important and thought-provoking points that were made. Use the inverted pyramid style of writing and present the best content at the beginning of the essay.

Related: Can College Admissions Detect ChatGPT?

Keep It Specific And Personal

Make use of narratives in which the student had an impact on other people, and other people had an impact on the student. This makes the essay personal and will help your child’s personality shine. Construct the narratives with specific examples, not generalities. The admissions reader can use those examples to champion your application. 

Make The Right Impression

Never write about a mental health condition, a serious illness, or bad behavior. Don’t give the admissions reader an excuse to reject your application. Focus on the positive, not the negative.

And proofread your essay multiple times before submitting it. Print it out and then read it aloud. Mark any place you stumble, because that may be a sign of a problem. 

Seek Recommendations Selectively

When considering whom to approach about a letter of recommendation, think about teachers who can both write well and write well about your child, specifically. And don’t have your child simply ask their teacher to write a letter of recommendation. Instead, have them ask their teacher if they can write a great letter of recommendation. This gives the teacher an out if their letter will be less than enthusiastic.

If you find a great educator who’s willing to provide a letter of recommendation, keep in mind that you want that letter to align with the rest of your child’s application. Give the teacher a copy of your child’s accomplishments resume that lists some of your child’s honors, awards, hobbies, sports, student activities, volunteer activities, jobs, and summer activities. This will provide the educator with facts that they can weave into their recommendation to make it seem like they know your child better than they do. But be selective in what you include in that resume, and keep it to just one page.

Be Professional

If a college admissions committee is on the fence about a student’s application, its members may visit that student’s social media accounts.

Before you submit a college application, preemptively review your child’s online presence and ask them to delete any inappropriate or offensive material. Eliminate any signs of bad judgment, drug and alcohol use, or a negative attitude.

When your child communicates with admissions staff, remind them to use a professional email address based on their name, not based on an inside joke or innuendo.

Back Off A Bit

Parents too often try to relive their college years vicariously through their children. They then become overly involved in the college admissions process and may be perceived as “helicopter” or “bulldozer” parents by the admissions committee. This can cause the application for admission to be rejected.

Just as you need to learn how to say “no” when your child picks a college you can’t afford, you also need to learn how to say “no” to yourself.

Back off.

Let your child demonstrate their maturity and take the lead in the application process. Remember that sometimes it’s best to simply play the role of chauffeur and checkbook and that you should only intervene if you have truly serious concerns.

During the campus visit, let your child go off on their own. Don’t tag along, and don’t look over their shoulder. If you want something to do, go to the cafeteria and offer to buy a random student lunch if they will tell you about their experiences with the school, both good and bad.

Most importantly, listen to your child, comply with their boundaries, and avoid these mistakes:

• Don’t write or rewrite the essay yourself.
• Don’t edit all the personality out of the essay.
• Don’t ask the student’s teachers for recommendations. That’s the student’s job.
• Don’t speak to college admissions staff yourself.
• Don’t try to game the system. 

Create A College Decision Matrix

If your child is admitted to a number of colleges, creating a college decision matrix can help you choose which offer to accept. A college decision matrix is a one-page chart with each college in a column and its important attributes in rows. Gathering all this information on a single page will make it easier to make a decision.
Among the attributes you should consider including in your matrix are:

• Affordability criteria, such as net price and average debt at graduation
• Outcome measures, such as graduation and job placement rates
• Academic match criteria, social match criteria, and environmental match criteria

Assign points to each row based on the importance of each attribute, and allocate them to each winner. Or use red, yellow, and green highlighters to mark each cell in the matrix and count the number of wins for each college. The totals will help you rank the colleges and make a final decision that’s right for both your child and your finances.

Related: Compare Colleges With These 13 Top Research Tools

Final Thoughts

Your role as a parent is to help your child stand out from the crowd and guide them towards making a good decision. It's important to be knowledgeable about the college acceptance process and to stay involved. But remember that it's their decision in the end.  

Going to an out-of-state "state" college can be significantly more expensive that in-state college or even private universities. And the cost may not be worth it.

Embarking on the journey to higher education is a life-changing decision. One of the first and biggest challenges many prospective students encounter is whether to pursue a college education in-state or out-of-state. 

As you know, the average cost of tuition has been on an upward trajectory since sometime around the 1980s. College tuition at a public four-year university increased 9.24% between 2010 and 2022, averaging a 12% increase each year in that period. 

Not only does higher tuition mean greater costs for education, but it also means greater likelihood of finding yourself graduating with larger student loans. This is particularly concerning when the average student loan debt of recent graduates is $33,500.

In this article, I’ll dive into the reasons why opting for an in-state college might prove to be a better long-term decision for you. From location and affordability to in-state benefits and quality of education, I aim to shed light on the advantages of keeping your educational investment in-state.

First, a quick overview of the pros and cons of staying in-state:

Pros of Applying to In-State Schools

• Lower tuition and fees
• Comparable education
• Increased opportunities for financial aid
• Geographical familiarity and comfort
• Known personal & professional network
• Keeps travel costs low

Cons of Apply to In-State Schools

• Limited diversity or exposure
• Staying in a familiar environment
• Limited program specialization
• Lack of personal independence

First Things First: What Should I Know?

Whether or not you’re the first person in your family to pursue a higher education, there are a few important things to keep in mind, beginning with common terms used when discussing the overall cost of attending postsecondary school.

Tuition: The cost of attending college classes. Some colleges charge one set tuition rate, while others charge per credit hour. Tuition is often different for resident vs. non-resident students.

Fees: There are almost always additional charges to cover the cost of your classes, such as additional course materials or a lab fee.

Direct Costs: These are costs paid directly to the university, such as tuition and fees, housing, and a meal plan.

Indirect Costs: These are educational costs not paid directly to the university, such as textbooks, transportation, and other personal expenses associated with your education.

Cost of Attendance: This is the maximum amount of money an academic institution costs to attend for one year, before any financial aid is applied. This includes both direct and indirect expenses.

Net Price: This is the amount you pay to attend an academic institution for one year, after any financial aid has been applied. Net price calculators are a useful feature where you can enter information about yourself to find out what similar students paid to attend the same university the previous year, after taking grants and scholarships into account.

Understanding the full cost of attendance at a university will help bring your financial picture into perspective, identifying how much financial aid is needed and the extent of any out-of-pocket expenses you face. Now that we’ve gotten basic terms out of the way, here’s a look at why knowing your costs is so important in the long-term.

To be clear, median earnings of early-career professionals with a bachelor’s degree or higher have been growing. However, we’re seeing the average cost of tuition increase almost 10 times faster than average earnings, and you don’t need a college degree to recognize the gross imbalance that creates. Rising tuition rates is one of the greatest contributing factors to the high student loan debt experienced in recent decades. It begs the question: How much debt are you willing to take on for your four-year degree?

Average Tuition Rates

The cost of education remains a significant financial challenge for most families, and the last thing you want to do is underestimate your dues. One way to fully understand the current weight of tuition is to look at the cost of attending the flagship school in each state. I guarantee if you compare in-state and out-of-state tuition at a handful of flagship schools across the country, you’ll start to notice a pattern. (This data was found at TuitionFit and IPEDS.)

Also, when researching tuition rates, I also noticed that some schools set different rates for lower-classmen vs. upper-classmen. Make sure to do your own research and ask around to uncover any hidden costs you’ll be hit with later.

Remember, your first year of college is also typically the least expensive year. Tuition and fees usually rise every year. You could be paying substantially more your last year of college than your first.

Let’s start by comparing average tuition across all four-year public universities in the U.S. with average tuition of only the flagship school in each state.

What does this tell us? Right away, you see that average out-of-state tuition is higher than in-state tuition, though what’s more telling is just how high out-of-state tuition is at a flagship university.

Average out-of-state tuition at a flagship university is more than $6,000 higher than average out-of-state tuition at a non-flagship university. This instantly tells me states are slapping on a “premium” for attending their flagship university.

Not convinced? Take a look at average annual tuition rates for 2022 -2023 across some of the most popular flagship schools in the U.S. and keep an eye on that premium I mentioned.

The out-of-state tuition rate at flagship schools is at least twice the in-state tuition rate and, in some cases, three or four times the in-state tuition rate.  

According to Mark Salisbury of TuitionFit, "Flagship universities see out-of-state students as cash cows and don't feel any obligation at all to make themselves financially feasible for out-of-state students."

Average out-of-state tuition is already 172% more than in-state tuition among public institutions. Is it worth it? I’ll dive into that next.

Why You Should Stay In-State

Cost and Affordability

Knowing how much higher out-of-state tuition and fees are compared to in-state rates, choosing to attend an out-of-state school instantly increases your financial burden, and you may find fewer opportunities for financial aid, grants, or scholarships.

TuitionFit data from students accepted by out-of-state public institutions shows that out-of-state students get proportionally smaller merit aid awards. Plus, you’ll need to factor in the cost of living in a new state, as well as the cost to travel back and forth to see family.

Quality of Education

Don’t quietly rule out in-state schools because of a myth that out-of-state schools offer a better education. In-state schools have comparable quality of education and academic offerings, and many are reputable enough to warrant your interest and research.

Location and Familiarity

Moving to a new place can be emotionally distressing – take it from someone who’s been there. Going out-of-state means removing yourself from your immediate support network, which can feel isolating at such an important time in your life. Staying in-state may make it easier to travel back home or to commute from your current residence.

Networking and Opportunities

Attending college in your home state can often provide easy access to networking opportunities, growing existing relationships and forging new ones as a result. Having strong connections can make a difference in the types of opportunities you receive, especially when you’re ready to start your career.

Cultural and Social Fit

Like being in a new location, adapting to a new culture or climate can be tough. There are many new things to see and do, but exploring a new environment can be scary. Be honest with what you value in your current community and whether you’ll be able to find those same aspects elsewhere.

When An Out-Of-State School Makes Sense

There are times when going out-of-state makes sense, but it’s often for very specific circumstances. That might include:

• Enrolling in a highly specialized academic program
• Wanting to work with specific professors, research facilities, or other technology
• Moving closer to other family members
• Moving to a location that is in better alignment with your personal or professional values
• Receiving an attractive financial aid package that makes attending an out-of-state school feasible.

There are also states that offer tuition reciprocity for universities located in neighboring states. For example, the Western Undergraduate Exchange can be used by students in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Check the regulations in your state.

Reasons To Keep Student Loan Debt Low

The importance of reasonable and manageable tuition really can’t be overstated because it directly influences your present and future wellbeing. Keeping tuition low not only prevents you from incurring excessive debt now, but it also minimizes your monthly minimum payments later – a time when you’ll have other costs to concern yourself with.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least briefly discuss the impacts of student loan debt here. While some student loan debt can actually be a good thing, here are a few points to consider before signing on the dotted line:

• Student loan debt can have a long-lasting impact on your financial well-being and force you to delay other life events such as purchasing a home or starting a family.
• Failing to make loan payments on time or defaulting on your loans can negatively affect your credit score, which further hurts your ability to buy a house or car.
• Making loan payments can keep you from building your savings or retirement portfolio.
• Loan-burdened graduates may feel the need to pursue higher-paying jobs over career satisfaction to meet the needs of their monthly payments.
• Student loan debt creates socioeconomic inequities for many graduates, which may limit your personal and professional growth overall.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there are ample benefits to keeping your college education in-state. First and foremost, you save thousands of dollars. But you also maintain your geographical comfort, retain a network of support, and receive a quality education just a stone’s throw from home.

And while tuition at in-state school is much lower than what you’d owe at an out-of-state school, pursuing a four-year degree at any university is a costly endeavor, in general. So, my advice to you is to research the schools near home and find out what they offer. 

Most colleges charge application fees of around $50 per application, but they can sometimes be as high as $90. This can really add up if you're applying to 4-7 colleges. However, there are also plenty of free college applications as well - you just have to know where to look.

These free college applications can take several forms: 

• Fee Waivers: Where the college charges no application fees for you, because you meet a specific criteria like being a low income student.
• Free College Application Weeks: Many states offer free college application weeks for their state university system, typically happening in October every year.
• Colleges With No Application Fees: There are also about 170 colleges that simply don't charge an application fee to apply

Here's where you can find each of these free college applications or fee waivers.

General College Application Fee Waivers

There are a few ways to get a college application fee waiver. The most common starting point is to apply for the SAT or ACT fee waiver, which requires any of the following:

• Enrollment in a free or reduced-cost lunch program
• Income eligibility for the SNAP program
• Receive public assistance or another low-income program from the local, state, or federal government
• Eligible orphans or wards of the state
• Homelessness

If you're eligible for the SAT or ACT fee waiver, you'll also be eligible for the following college application fee waivers:

• Common App Fee Waiver
• Coalition App Fee Waiver

You can also ask your college for a fee waiver, and they may provide you with a waiver code.

Some states also have their own fee waiver programs. While they all match the general criteria above, they may have different forms.

• California: Provides a fee waiver automatically for low-income California residents, for up to 4 college applications (both UC and CSU combined)

States With Free College Application Weeks (Or Days)

Many state college systems also offer free college applications by hosting "free college application week" or "free college application month". 

• Alabama: October 7 - 11, 2024
• Colorado: October 15 - 17, 2024
• Connecticut: November 1, 2024
  
• Delaware: October and November, dates vary by High School
• Idaho: October, dates vary by high school
• Illinois: October
  
• Indiana: September 23 - 27, 2024
• Kansas: October 7 - 9, 2024
  
• Michigan: October, dates vary by school
• Minnesota: June 24 - 28, 2024
• Mississippi: October 16 - 18, 2024
  
• Montana: September 30 - October 11, 2024
• New York: October 16 - 29, 2024
• North Carolina: October 21 - 27, 2024
• Ohio: October
  
• Oklahoma: September 23 - 27, 2024
• South Carolina: September and October, dates vary by school
  
• South Dakota: October 1 - November 30, 2024
• Tennessee: September, dates vary by school
• Virginia: October 21 - 25, 2024
• West Virginia: October 28 - November 1, 2024

Colleges With No Application Fee (By State)

There are roughly 170 colleges in the United States that offer free college applications (yes, they don't even bother with an application fee -thank you!). Here's the list by state:

Don't See Your State Or College?

We work hard to keep this list updated. If you know a state or college that has a free college application week or month, please let us know!

If you're not seeing your state and want to apply, it doesn't hurt to reach out to the financial aid office first to see if they can provide you an application fee waiver.

Also, don't forget to check out our guide to Student Loans And Financial Aid By State to see about any state-specific financial aid programs you may qualify for.