Non-resident tuition
The published rate a public college charges a student who is not a resident of its state. The default outcome for most state pairs.
Public universities are funded partly by their own state's taxpayers, and the non-resident rate is the mechanism that recovers the difference. The gap between the two rates varies enormously — from a few thousand dollars a year to more than forty thousand.
A wide gap is not automatically a barrier. Several public universities run non-resident scholarships large enough to bring an out-of-state student close to the resident rate, and those awards sit outside every state agreement.
Comparing on absolute cost rather than on residency status occasionally reverses the answer, because one state's non-resident rate can be lower than another state's in-state rate.
See also
Asked and answered
›What does "non-resident tuition" mean for in-state tuition?
The published rate a public college charges a student who is not a resident of its state. The default outcome for most state pairs.
›Why does non-resident tuition matter?
A wide gap is not automatically a barrier. Several public universities run non-resident scholarships large enough to bring an out-of-state student close to the resident rate, and those awards sit outside every state agreement.
How this page was made
Compiled and checked by Billy Reiner, editor of In-State Check. Last verified 2026-09-27.
- Compiled from published rate pages
- Every dollar figure on this site is tuition and mandatory fees for one full-time year, read from the named reference institution’s own 2025–26 rate page and rounded to the nearest $100. Housing, books, travel and course-specific differentials are not included in them.
- Checked against the administering body
- Compact membership is checked against the commission that runs each program (WICHE, MHEC, SREB and NEBHE), and every residency rule against the issuing state authority or statute. Nothing here is taken from another comparison site.
Not advice. In-State Check is independent of every college, compact and state agency named here. Residency classification and award decisions are made by the institution you apply to. Found an error? Send the page URL and the source that contradicts it to [email protected], and the page is corrected and re-dated. Full methodology.