The Kansas Board of Regents approved a proposal on Sept. 10 from Kansas State to offer in-state tuition rates to students from Missouri.
K-State hopes to attract more out-of-state students to the university as enrollment has steadily declined over the past six years. University president Richard Myers said in his presentation this tuition change would have a neutral to positive financial impact on net tuition revenue.
“We thought we need to recruit more out-of-state students,” Myers said. “We’d like to make that … a little bit clearer to potential students from Missouri.”
Missouri residents currently pay 150 percent of K-State’s in-state tuition rate as outlined by the Midwest Student Exchange Program. In-state tuition is $312.50 per credit hour.
“We also have agreements for specific programs for Missouri students that allow them to have in-state tuition in exchange for slots in their dental schools,” Myers said.
For Samantha Costigan, junior in animal sciences and industry, this change is a no-brainer.
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“A lot of the other colleges from Kansas give Missouri residents in-state tuition, especially when they live where I was,” Costigan said. “I was like basically right on the Kansas-Missouri border, and K-State was actually one of the two schools that I looked at in Kansas that wouldn’t give me in-state tuition.”
Costigan said she ultimately chose to attend K-State for the College of Veterinary Medicine as she plans to attend the college once she finishes her undergraduate degree.
“[This] opened up more options for students who maybe don’t have a lot of money to pay for out-of-state tuition but still want to pursue a degree, but … for some reason don’t want to go to Mizzou or something like that,” Costigan said.
She added one of the few reasons she considered attending a school other than K-State was the tuition rate.
The proposal by K-State to the Board of Regents outlined specific criteria for students to receive the in-state tuition rate. The university would require a minimum GPA of 3.25 and an ACT score of 22. This is the current requirement for the 150 percent rate.
“We can afford to take this chance,” Myers said. “We think it makes sense (to start) with the state next door where we already have a big presence in terms of alumni and friends.”
Myers said this fits into the university’s strategic enrollment plan which outlines goals to increase the out-of-state freshmen population from 17 percent to 20 percent.
K-State plans to implement these new tuition rates for the the fall 2021 semester.
