Best Financial Aid Packages for Out-of-State Students

best financial aid packages for out-of-state students

Many aspiring college students need to make a decision among several colleges before the fall semester approaches; for many, this is quite a pivotal decision that 100% affects the next four years of their lives. Sadly, this decision is heavily influenced by the cost of attendance and tuition of colleges.

Luckily, many colleges offer financial aid to students in addition to potential federal aid. Many of these aid packages are only awarded to a hand full of students who demonstrate extraordinary academic efficiency or meet some other special standard. Here are some of the top public colleges in the United States that offer the most financial aid during the 2014-2015 academic year.

The school that offers the best possible financial package is a military school in South Carolina that is formally known at The Citadel. It offers a startling $36,000 as part of a financial award which covers the entire out-of-state school tuition of roughly $32,000. While this financial aid package is awesome, it is only offered to a select few. Out of close to 3000 undergrads, only seven received this package during the 2014-2015 academic year which is less than a percent of the school population.

A set of schools out of California make this list with awesome out-of-state package deals for those who qualify. These public schools, all part of the University of California, are based in San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Irvine.

The first of these, in San Diego, offered on average $34,000 to out-of-state students during 2014-2015 which was about 90% of the out-of-state tuition. It was given to over 200 out of about 30,000 people which was still less than a percent of the school population, but the school had a fairly small out-of-state minority.

The next University of California school that offers the next best deal was in Santa Barbara. During the academic year of 2014-2015, it offered $33,000 in financial aid to close to 60 people from outside of California. This accounted for a large portion of the out-of-state tuition numbering about $37,000, but since it was given to less than a 100 people, this only covered for an extremely small percentage of the total enrollment of 24,000 students that year.

The third University of California University was the one based in Irvine. During the 2014-2015 academic year, it gave out close to 600 out-of-state scholarships of $26,000 which covered most of the $32,000 cost of attendance. UC-Irvine gave the most out-of-state scholarships of the UC school system, but these still only accounted for a small portion of the total enrollment of 32,000 people.

Across the country sits the University of New Hampshire which makes this list with a decent potential deal for out-of-state students. During 2014-2015, It offered about 60 scholarships that averaged close to $29,000. This covered 97% of the $30,000 out-of-state tuition, but it only covers less than a percent of the undergraduates.

These are only five public schools across the country that ranked in the top ten out-of-state scholarship deals of the academic year of 2014-2015. There is one clear message from the types of scholarships noted above. There is the possibility to cover a large portion of out-of-state tuition at many different colleges, but these scholarships are extremely competitive. The opportunity is there, but many aspiring undergraduates need to distinguish themselves from the pack in order to receive these scholarships.

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