You and your 10th grader are researching colleges, and all at once you’re both about to jump out of your chairs.
You’ve found a college that sounds absolutely perfect.
There’s only one problem. It’s out-of-state and so extra expensive.
This college is a fantastic option because its got a renowned program that focuses on exactly what your daughter most wants to study.
It provides free room and board to Army ROTC students, and Army ROTC is on your daughter’s list of things she hopes to use to help get her college paid for.
It’s got efficient, safe public transportation — plus it’s on a long haul bus line that goes straight home to mom and dad, so she won’t need to take a car to college. A savings of thousands of dollars right there!
The registrar’s office confirms that it will take all the CLEP and dual enrollment credits your daughter’s earned in middle school and high school. Whoo hoo!
It’s an ideal fit when it comes to all the usual things like location and size — plus it’s in the city where her Grandma lives. If your daughter can live with Grandma for June, July, and August before college starts, she may be able to snap up a tuition reimbursement job before crowds of other college students descend on the area in September.
It’s perfect!
Except for one small problem.
The out-of-state tuition your daughter will be required to pay will be astronomical, perhaps negating all the other savings she could get by attending there.
Or will it? There are ways for out-of-state students to be billed tuition at the same rate as in-state students.
The UNIVERSITY PARENT website generously provides a complete and detailed list of exactly what it takes for an out-of-state student to get in-state tuition in all 50 states.
Go straight here, and you’ll be able to click on the name of the state where your child would like to go to college. When you do, you’ll instantly see all the official rules and all the ways your child could receive in-state tuition in that state.
Some families who’ve done research like this have actually picked up and moved to the state where the excellent fit college was located. If the savings is great enough and you have job flexibility and time to plan ahead, it might be something to think about.
10th grade is the perfect time to be thinking through options.
If you child is in 12th grade and still unsure of what she wants to do with her life, see my kind, helpful blog post on that subject here.
For clear, step-by-step help getting your kid through college debt-free and into a job they love afterward, get your copy of my book:
Important—> It’s a reference book, so nobody reads the whole thing cover to cover. Pick out what you need to read in it using the fast-paced, 10-minute video instructions here.
You can see hundreds of reviews of this book on Amazon by going to:
You can see why financial advising professionals love LAUNCH, here.
You can see the top 9 questions parents are asking me about LAUNCH, here.
Read just one chapter of LAUNCH every 1–3 months while your child’s in middle school and high school, and you’ll know every viable strategy for debt-free college at exactly the right time to implement it.
And if your child’s already well past middle school? That’s OK; you can run to catch up. But the process of getting your kids through college debt-free goes more smoothly the earlier you start it—especially if you’re not planning to save up any money to pay for college.
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Who is Jeannie Burlowski?
Jeannie is a full-time academic strategist, podcast host, and sought-after speaker for students ages 12–26, their parents, and the professionals who serve them. Her writing, speaking, and podcasting help parents set their kids up to graduate college debt-free, ready to jump directly into careers they excel at and love. Her work has been featured in publications such as The Huffington Post, USA Today, Parents Magazine, and US News & World Report, and on CBS News.
Jeannie also helps students apply to law, medical, business, and grad school at her website GetIntoMedSchool.com. You can follow her on Bluesky @jburlowski.bsky.social.
No part of this article was written using AI.