Tuition Savings Calculator
Price the in-state versus out-of-state difference at any US public college over the full length of a degree, and see what a regional exchange program does to that total.
Verified 2026-09-27 · 2025–26 published rates
What residency is worth, by state
Undergraduate, four years, 2025–26 rates held flat. Sorted by the size of the gap.
| State | Resident/yr | Non-resident/yr | Gap over 4 yrs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan | $17,700 | $58,000 | $161,200 |
| Virginia | $22,300 | $60,000 | $150,800 |
| California | $15,900 | $49,600 | $134,800 |
| Wisconsin | $11,600 | $42,100 | $122,000 |
| North Carolina | $9,000 | $39,300 | $121,200 |
| Texas | $11,700 | $42,000 | $121,200 |
| Maryland | $11,900 | $42,000 | $120,400 |
| Washington | $12,900 | $43,000 | $120,400 |
| Indiana | $12,000 | $41,700 | $118,800 |
| Oregon | $15,100 | $43,500 | $113,600 |
| Arizona | $13,600 | $41,100 | $110,000 |
| Colorado | $14,000 | $41,300 | $109,200 |
| Ohio | $13,200 | $39,400 | $104,800 |
| Vermont | $20,700 | $46,900 | $104,800 |
| Connecticut | $20,400 | $45,100 | $98,800 |
| Delaware | $15,900 | $40,600 | $98,800 |
| Iowa | $10,900 | $33,600 | $90,800 |
| Massachusetts | $17,400 | $40,100 | $90,800 |
| Montana | $8,000 | $30,600 | $90,400 |
| South Carolina | $13,700 | $36,300 | $90,400 |
| Hawaii | $12,600 | $35,000 | $89,600 |
| Florida | $6,400 | $28,700 | $89,200 |
| Utah | $10,000 | $32,000 | $88,000 |
| Maine | $12,600 | $34,500 | $87,600 |
| Alabama | $13,700 | $34,900 | $84,800 |
| Rhode Island | $16,800 | $37,700 | $83,600 |
| Idaho | $9,400 | $30,200 | $83,200 |
| Kentucky | $13,700 | $34,200 | $82,000 |
| Illinois | $18,000 | $38,000 | $80,000 |
| New Jersey | $17,700 | $37,700 | $80,000 |
| Pennsylvania | $20,000 | $40,000 | $80,000 |
| Georgia | $12,100 | $32,000 | $79,600 |
| New York | $10,900 | $30,600 | $78,800 |
| Tennessee | $14,100 | $33,700 | $78,400 |
| Minnesota | $16,500 | $36,000 | $78,000 |
| Arkansas | $10,300 | $29,700 | $77,600 |
| New Mexico | $8,900 | $28,300 | $77,600 |
| Missouri | $12,400 | $31,600 | $76,800 |
| New Hampshire | $19,000 | $38,000 | $76,000 |
| Kansas | $12,000 | $30,600 | $74,400 |
| Nebraska | $10,300 | $28,700 | $73,600 |
| Alaska | $9,300 | $27,600 | $73,200 |
| Mississippi | $9,900 | $28,000 | $72,400 |
| Oklahoma | $12,000 | $29,800 | $71,200 |
| West Virginia | $9,900 | $27,300 | $69,600 |
| Nevada | $8,900 | $26,000 | $68,400 |
| Louisiana | $12,000 | $29,000 | $68,000 |
| Wyoming | $6,700 | $21,000 | $57,200 |
| District of Columbia | $8,400 | $16,700 | $33,200 |
| North Dakota | $11,100 | $16,700 | $22,400 |
| South Dakota | $10,000 | $13,600 | $14,400 |
Check eligibility first
The gap only matters if nothing closes it. Run your state pair through the checker before you budget for the non-resident rate — a compact or a bilateral agreement changes the arithmetic entirely.
Asked and answered
›Does the calculator account for tuition increases?
No, and that is deliberate. It holds the current published rate flat across the projection, which makes every total a floor rather than a forecast. Public tuition rises most years, so the real figure will be higher — but by an amount that depends on decisions no one has made yet.
›What is included in these figures?
Tuition and mandatory fees for a full-time student at each state's reference institution, from published 2025–26 rates, rounded to the nearest $100. Housing, food, books, travel and course-specific differentials are excluded — differentials in particular can add several thousand dollars a year in engineering, nursing and business.
›Why does the total change when I add my home state?
Because the home state determines which routes exist. Without it the calculator can only show the residency gap. With it, the calculator runs the same engine the state-pair pages use and applies the cheapest route the pair actually has — a compact, a bilateral agreement, or nothing.
›Is a bigger gap always a worse deal?
No. Several public universities with very wide published gaps run non-resident scholarships that close most of it, and those awards sit outside every state agreement. The gap tells you what is at stake, not what you will pay.
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.