In state vs. out of state prices are terrible

Jacob Dec, Assistant Sports Editor

Picking what college you’re going to and whether you want to stay in Missouri or go to a different school out of Missouri can be a tough question that high school seniors have to ask themselves. Deciding if you want to spend more money on tuition to go to a bigger university in a bigger college town or spending less money to go to a smaller college in a small college town can also be a tough question students ask themselves.

Senior Megan Kelly decided to go to the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) over the University of Kansas (KU) because of price.

“UMKC wasn’t really one of my ideal schools at the time, and I absolutely loved KU and its location, but it was too pricey,” Kelly said.

According to www.collegedata.com, KU’s out of state tuition (including books and dorms), $42,875, is significantly more than the in-state tuition, $26,041. UMKC’s out-of-state tuition is $34,116 and it’s in state tuition is $23,514, according to the UMKC website, www.UMKC.edu.

Senior Alexis Humm talks about how the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition helped her decide where she went to college.

“I wanted to go to Arkansas, thinking I had to pay out of state tuition, but I do get the opportunity to get in-state tuition so that really helped me go with Arkansas as my college choice,” Humm said.

It doesn’t seem logical to charge students more than double just for living maybe one or two states away from their college of choice. If anything universities should charge almost the same for students from in state and out of state because if a student likes that university enough to travel out of their home state to attend that university then they should be paying almost the same as students living in the same state as the university.

Kelly talked about another reason why she chose UMKC over KU.

“Another big decision maker was all of the dual credit classes I have taken here at South will transfer as those credits, so I can technically begin as a sophomore with my 33 credits I will be graduating with. Whereas at KU they either don’t transfer or transfer as an elective,” Kelly said.

The gap between in-state tuition and out-of-state tuition should be shrunk because big universities are losing too many students due to the high out of state tuition.