Yahoo Finance 10 Schools That Award the Most Financial Aid to Out-of-State Students
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The cost of attending college is even pricier when a student decides to attend a public school as an out-of-state student, but a significant financial aid package can help pay for the bump in price.
On average, tuition and fees for an out-of-state student for the 2014-2015 school year were double what in-state students paid, according to U.S. News data. But some public institutions offer larger financial awards to offset the higher costs and attract nonresident students.
The Citadel, known as "The Military College of South Carolina," offers the largest average amount in financial aid to nonresident recipients -- the highest out of the 283 public colleges and universities that submitted the data to U.S. News.
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The military college, which has about 2,750 undergraduates, handed out seven financial aid awards to nonresidents during the 2014-2015 school year, averaging around $36,414 per award. The average aid amount offered more than covers the Citadel's out-of-state tuition and fees -- a sticker price of $32,176 that school year.
Half of the public schools offering the largest average amounts in financial aid are in South Carolina and California.
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Three of the 10 are in the University of California system -- University of California--San Diego, University of California--Santa Barbara and University of California--Irvine. Two of these schools, UC--Santa Barbara and UC--San Diego, made the list as some of the most costly public universities for out-of-state students in 2015-2016, according to U.S. News data.
At UC--San Diego, out-of-state students received $33,715 on average in the 2014-2015 school year, an amount that almost covers the the out-of-state tuition and fees: $38,066 that school year. UC--San Diego has a large student body with 29,909 undergraduates, 6 percent of whom are from out of state.
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These are the 10 public universities where nonresidents who received financial aid were awarded the most during the 2014-2015 school year. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
School name (state) | Average financial aid award for out-of-state students | Number of recipients | U.S. News rank and category |
The Citadel (SC) | $36,414 | 7 | 3, Regional Universities (South) |
The University of California--San Diego | $33,715 | 232 | 39, National Universities |
The University of California--Santa Barbara | $33,164 | 57 | 37, National Universities |
University of New Hampshire | $28,769 | 58 | 103 (tie), National Universities |
University of Virginia--Wise | $28,659 | 10 | *RNP, National Liberal Arts College |
University of Hawaii--Manoa | $26,718 | 126 | 161, National Universities |
University of California--Irvine | $26,007 | 569 | 39 (tie), National Universities |
Coastal Carolina University (SC) | $25,018 | 34 | 63 (tie), Regional Universities (South) |
New Jersey Institute of Technology | $24,184 | 81 | 140 (tie), National Universities |
Alabama State University | $24,056 | 86 | *RNP, Regional Universities (South) |
*RNP denotes an institution that is ranked in the bottom one-fourth of its ranking category. U.S. News calculates a rank for the school but has decided not to publish it.
Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find financial aid data, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.
U.S. News surveyed nearly 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2015 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News' data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News' rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The financial aid data above are correct as of May 24, 2016.
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