Out of State Tuition

The question is not odd at all.  And the reason you can't seem to get a definite answer is probably because it can vary from state to state and school to school.  There are sometimes "discounts" available for players looking at out of state schools - programs like neighboring states, transfer scholarships, etc.  

Bottom line is that when an offer is made with a percentage or $ attached, it is important to ask what, exactly, that equates to, what the discount is applied to, and how much you/your son will have to pay to attend college there.

Make sure you ask about any academic, needs, other discounts, other $$ available.  The athletic scholarship piece is just one part of the equation for most.  And, make sure you know all costs such as room and board, outside living expenses, etc.  You can't make a fully educated decision on "best value" until you drill down to actual cost at the end of the day.

Thank you very much! This is all very confusing. I appreciate all the information provided here! 

Two of the schools my son received offers from didn't even bother putting it into a percentage, they just said "We will give him x amount of money". one was in-state and one out.

My son's was in $$$$ also.....$XXX for baseball and $XXX for academics.  The baseball percentage was essentially right at 25% but they presented it as a dollar amount, not a percentage

that's a great question that I did not ask.  son's offer was in $$, so I was expecting $$ off of out of state tuition.  when the invoice came for the semester, there was $$ off of a discounted out of state tuition.  Very nice surprise.

I have another question though- son went to freshman summer school-   I was surprised that it was almost no cost.  I'm thinking that summer school must not count against scholarship limits?  I don't know, but was curious if anyone knows the answer?

When my son was offered a scholarship from an out of state D2 it was presented as a dollar amount which worked out to be X% of the expected tuition not including room, board, fees and books.  Don't forget to factor in fees for out of state students are significantly higher than in state students.  In my son's case the scholarship (and grants) lowered the tuition costs to almost equal what he would have paid as an in state student.

Having checked this out extensively with my son's future school, it worked like this. He receives a waiver that will bring his tuition cost down to 150% of in-state tuition rates. His percentage is applied to the out-of-state tuition and the waiver deducted from the total. This is apparently how the NCAA computes it, as well. All of the schools he was considering that included such waivers worked this way. I guess some schools may do it like PABaseballdad's kid. My guess is that this allows them to say they're giving you, say 50%, off of tuition costs and then the math works down to a lower amount when the NCAA calculates it against the scholarship limit.

The 25% minimum for D1 is 25% of the total cost (tuition + room and board).....though when my son's bill comes, the baseball money (and academic money) is taken from his tuition first, then the rest comes off room and board.    I assume it's shown that way,  because when they move off campus, the room and board doesn't show up on his bill anymore, but his scholly amount stays  the same.

It varies depending on the school. My son played D1 out of state at a public school.  The scholarship was based on in-state tuition but he had good enough grades that he also got a merit scholarship which almost took care of the difference.  I have also seen schools that allow in-state tuition to out of state students if they are receiving any kind of scholarship.

My son attended summer school, at the coaches request, to get used to campus and meet team mates before the fall session started. I didn't realize this, but for the 6 weeks of summer school (one of his classes was an online PE class), it cost us over $9,000 and only a small portion of that was covered by scholarship (merit didn't apply either), so before you commit to summer school get the facts!  That hurt! Conversely, my friend's son at an ACC school, went to summer school at the coaches request and summer school was free/part of the scholarship... so it just varies alot from school to school.

I took a look at my notes last night from a couple of schools where my 2018 had offers. They are in the same conference and I made sure I talked to admissions and the school compliance guy to confirm how it worked. For the purpose of this, let's assume both offers were 50% (the offers were not actually the same). Both schools are members of the Western Undergrad Exchange, which means as long as you graduate from a school in one of the designated Western states, you pay 150% of in-state tuition at any member school (with some relaxed academic requirements). Here are the numbers:

                           School A                                                           School B

Resident:             $6,870                                                            $10,872

Non-Resident     $17,729                                                          $32,904

WUE tuition:       $10,305                                                          $16,308

R&B:                    $9,962                                                             $13,898

Books                  $1,860                                                             $1,280

They figure the cost at 50% of each at the non-resident rate. So, for school A, the 50% baseball scholarship is: $8,879.50 + $4,981 + $930 = $14,790

For school B: $16452 + $8,154 + $640 = $25,256

The total before scholarship non-resident cost for school A (not counting "other expenses) is 

                                                $29,551

For School B:                         $48, 173

Now, subtract your scholarship and

School A: $29,551 - $14,790 = $14,761

School B: $48,173 - $25,256 = $22,917

However, they now throw back the difference between non-resident and WUE tuition as a waiver, so, final numbers for out-of-pocket costs:

School A: $14,761 - $7,424 = $7,337

School B: $22,917 - $16,596 = $6,321

So, even though school B is the far more expensive school for non-residents, the fact that their out-of-state tuition is so high - or more precisely - so much higher than their resident tuition works largely in your favor. After a Pell Grant, for many families, this 50% athletic scholarship comes very close to a full ride. If you start talking scholarships above 50%, you can very quickly get into a situation that equals a full ride including the "other expense category. 

Schools have their 11.7 guideline, but each staff also has a budget to work with, so you can see for many schools how much incentive state schools have to stay with in-state talent or to only venture out to places where they can apply tuition waivers or non-resident tuition programs that are specific to certain state residents. Arkansas is a great example. They have reciprocal agreements with other states. If you live in a border state or Illinois, you will only pay 110% of in-state tuition as long as you can come in with the required numbers (3.3 and 24 ACT and you pay 130% of resident, 3.5 and 28 is 120% and 3.7 and 30 is 110%). Understandably almost all of their recruits come from those states. If they want a kid from California, the same athletic scholarship % is going to mean a lot more money out of their budget. This is something I didn't pay enough attention to early in the process. Understanding by academic numbers and geography what schools will find you more attractive as a recruit is a larger factor than many take into account.

Son's athletic scholarship was stated in $$$ and we were told would not change but as tuition went up, the % of scholarship went down slightly.

This is where academics/exam scores play a huge role. Because of ACT score, out-of-state tuition was completely waived and will continue to be as long as GPA is 3.0 or better.  This is a huge benefit.

RedFishFool posted:

Son's athletic scholarship was stated in $$$ and we were told would not change but as tuition went up, the % of scholarship went down slightly.

This is where academics/exam scores play a huge role. Because of ACT score, out-of-state tuition was completely waived and will continue to be as long as GPA is 3.0 or better.  This is a huge benefit.

For these two schools, one was stated straight up as a %. For the other, the final written form was stated as $$, which worked out to a particular %. When first offered, this coach actually stated it in terms of out-of-pocket expense left over and wasn't even sure what percentage it was. He figured it up later for us. It's not a Power 5, so I asked him straight up in the four years he'd been there, how many times he'd not renewed a scholarship or lowered one. He assured me he'd done so only twice and it was behavior related. He also gave us his word that year-to-year, he'd adjust the scholarship to pay the same % as the first year. Now, of course, if he's gone at some point all bets are off, but, for now, we trust his word.

My 2017 was offered in-state tuition by a B10 school that did not have a reciprocal tuition agreement with our state.  It was due to his 33 ACT score.  Grades and test scores do matter.  That's what I tell my 2020, at least.

Check this link out:

https://www.sreb.org/states

Helps when majors are stipulated here offering in state tuition at out of state schools.

Unsure if other states not listed here have similar programs.

Someone here mentioned talking to admissions. We met with an HC and I asked a few questions about who to talk to regarding academic aid and AP/community college classes my son will bring in from high school. HC said to only ask people in athletics those questions cause the "people in the other side of campus"--i.e. Financial aid and academics--don't understand athletics. 

Is that normal? It made me a little nervous.