Florida resident Dianne Venetta and her daughter, a rising high school senior, are limiting their college search to only in-state public schools.
“We are avidly looking at in-state colleges specifically because they are more affordable,” says Venetta, of Leesburg, Florida, whose daughter hopes to attend either Florida State University or Florida Gulf Coast University next year.
The Florida mom says she doesn’t see the need to pay extra for a college education when the real success follows after receiving a bachelor’s. “A four-year degree might land him or her the job, but it’s ‘they’ who must prove themselves going forward.”
When it comes to cost, more parents and college-bound students like the Venettas are choosing to stay closer to home.
On average, tuition at an in-state public college costs almost two-thirds less than the average sticker price of a private college, according to data reported to U.S. News in an annual survey.
[Read U.S. News data on college costs and financial aid.]
According to the 2017 Sallie Mae/Ipsos survey on ” How America Pays for College,” nearly three quarters — 73 percent — of students and their families selected an in-state college. That’s up 3 percentage points from last year.
The Sallie Mae survey also found that the trend of staying closer to home is more pronounced by region — specifically in the South and in the West. Students from the Northeast — in contrast — are most likely to attend a four-year private college.
“When I think about parents that I talk to in Florida and Texas, they’re absolutely dying to get their kids into the University of Florida, Florida State, UT–Austin, or Texas A&M,” says Shannon Vasconcelos, director of college of finance at College Coach. “A lot of it’s cultural. These schools have built such a strong brand in those state.”
Of the families surveyed in “How America Pays for College,” 53 percent of students in the South and 43 percent of students in the West attend a four-year public school compared with 34 percent in Northeast, where 40 percent of students attend a private school. Families in Northeast, according to the survey, are also more likely to borrow money to pay for school.
“They focus on private schools and are willing to pay more,” says Vasconcelos on families from the Northeast who she advises. “These families have private school aspirations for their kids.”
[See the 2017 top-ranked public colleges and universities.]
But for many families, cost has become more of a factor since the Great Recession, says Julia Clark, senior vice president at Ipsos.
Over the 10 years that Sallie Mae has conducted the survey, 69 percent of families eliminated at least one college based on cost in 2017, compared with 58 percent in 2008.
Experts say cost is a major driver for families to choose in-state schools, and location can also be a strong deciding factor.
“Twenty-two percent of families said that location was the primary reason for their final school choice. When I pair that with some of the data findings in the study, you see that whether in state, or living at home or location, consumers are getting savvier about how they’re going to pay for college,” says Martha Holler, a Sallie Mae spokesperson.
While paying an in-state sticker price is the main cost motivating factor, college experts say there are other cost considerations for choosing to stay close to home.
— Living at home: “One of the other things that gets brought up fairly often is the possibility of living at home and saving on room and board costs because that makes up a huge percentage of total college costs,” says the College Coach adviser.
The average cost room and board for the 2016-2017 academic year fetched $10,692, according to 1,022 ranked colleges that reported that data to U.S. News in an annual survey.
“My family and I were able to afford the in-state tuition out of pocket with a few scholarships and zero financial aid,” says Aliya Brown, 25, of the Bronx, New York, who graduated from CUNY–Baruch College in 2015. “I was able to continue living at home — avoiding room and board.”
— Moving expenses: Neel Somani, a rising junior at the University of California–Berkeley, chose to go in-state rather than attend Rice University in Texas because of the cost.
“I brought my car from my hometown to Berkeley, which definitely would not have been possible if I was living in Houston,” says the 19-year-old from San Ramon, California. “Another consideration was buying new furniture and new things for when I moved in. It would have been too expensive to ship everything.”
— Transportation: Experts say another cost factor for staying in state is transportation, which can add up quickly if the student attends a school far away.
“If you’re having to fly across the country, that is going to add a nice chunk of change to the college bill,” says Vasconcelos from College Coach.
Trying to fund your education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for College center.
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Cost-Conscious Families Choosing In-State Colleges originally appeared on usnews.com