Tuition border wars: Using Penn State threshold, SUNY the latest to target Pa. high schoolers

The pitch delivered on Twitter got right to the point: “If your high schooler wants to go to college in New York, the State University of New York offers same in-state tuition as Penn State.”

In recent days, SUNY has made similar overtures in seven other states, mostly in the Northeast and Midwest. Each of them, like Pennsylvania, has a flagship campus that charges some of the highest public tuition and fees in the country.

Cross-border tuition wars are nothing new. But they have grown more consequential as declining high school graduate numbers, a pandemic and a roaring job market have made it harder to fill classroom seats on many campuses.

The SUNY price match is for fall 2023 and uses as a benchmark what students in other states would pay to enroll at their own flagship school.

Tuition for next fall has not yet been set, but based on 2022-23 prices, a Pennsylvanian choosing to attend, say, the University at Albany would not pay the out-of-state rate of $28,308. Instead, the student would pay the $19,286 rate that Pennsylvanians pay at University Park — a reduction of $9,022, according to SUNY officials.

The price match “eliminates the guessing of ‘Am I going to get a scholarship from this college or that college? Can I afford to attend a SUNY school?’ ” said Joel Wincow­ski, deputy to SUNY’s chancellor for enrollment.

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Officials there want to reverse a 20% enrollment loss over the past decade that has reduced SUNY’s headcount below 370,000 students.

SUNY’s effort to match flagship prices in other states represents another layer in cross-border competition that long has involved campuses in states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina and elsewhere. The University of Maine also has a public flagship match program with a dozen states, including Pennsylvania.

“The institutions that are on the front lines of this are regional public universities from areas where the traditional-age college population is shrinking,” said Tom Harnisch, vice president for government relations in Washington, D.C., with the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) “That is expected to accelerate.”

Even some private colleges are offering to match public flagship prices. Oglethorpe University in Atlanta says it will meet the in-state cost of public flagships in all 50 states for qualified students.

Penn State gave no indication it has plans to counter the SUNY flagship match.

“We are aware of the SUNY program. There are no broad initiatives at Penn State to offer scholarships to University Park to prospective students from a particular state,” said university spokesman Wyatt Dubois. “However, programs such as the Provost’s Award are open to new undergraduate first-year students from Pennsylvania as well as residents of other states.

“In addition, at Penn State’s Commonwealth Campuses, the Discover Penn State Award is available to eligible first-year and transfer applicants from Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia.”

Twenty-two of SUNY’s 64 colleges are participating in the price match, though their rates vary.

“If the SUNY out-of-state tuition and fees rate is already lower than University Park, the student would pay the lesser amount,” said spokeswoman Holly Liapis.

In addition to Pennsylvania, SUNY officials have identified these seven states and institutions, as well as the benchmark prices students would pay from those states to attend SUNY. They include: University of Connecticut (Storrs) $19,434; University of California at Berkeley, $19,188; University of New Hampshire (Durham) $19,024; University of Vermont (Burlington) $18,890; University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) $17,138; University of Massachusetts (Amherst) $16,952; and Rutgers University (New Brunswick) $16,263.

For years, those in Pennsylvania looking at colleges have received pitches through the mail, their inboxes and on the radio and on billboards from schools in a variety of states.

In Ohio, Youngstown State University about a decade ago introduced its “Affordable Tuition Advantage” initially targeting prospective students in 18 Western Pennsylvania counties as well as four in West Virginia. It eliminated nearly all of the thousands of dollars in out-of-state surcharges those students paid.

Last year, Youngstown State went further, opening the program to all non-Ohio students, said university spokesman Ron Cole. Those students now pay $15 more per credit hour than an Ohio student, or for fulltime enrollment, $180 more per semester than for an Ohio student.

“Being only a handful of miles from the Pennsylvania line, we wanted to make YSU more available and affordable to Pennsylvania residents, in particular, but also to areas in West Virginia and New York that are close by,” he said. “It’s certainly helped in our recruitment efforts and made us much more competitive with other similar public universities in Pennsylvania.

Over the years, the University of North Carolina at Pembroke has tempted Pennsylvanians with balmy temperatures and low tuition prices.

Public universities in South Dakota have tested the waters, too, cutting their out-of-state tuition by half.

As New York public colleges and universities try to attract enrollment from out of state, they have worked to keep their own residents from leaving, introducing in 2017 the “Excelsior Scholarship.” That makes tuition free for full-time undergraduate in-state students willing to stay and work in New York after graduation for as many years as they received the aid.

The program, open to families making up to $125,000 a year, was praised by some as making college more affordable but criticized by others who said it favors those who could afford to attend full-time, rather than non-traditional students accounting for most higher education market growth of late. Room, board and fees are not included in the “last dollar” program intended to meet need beyond other aid. It converts to a loan for those who do not meet the work and residency requirement.

Over the years, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education has reduced the out-of-state tuition rate for campuses near the state line, since their primary recruiting area dips into neighboring states. For instance, New Jersey and New York residents attending Mansfield University full time pay $10,032 for tuition instead of the $11,574 out-of-state and international student rate. Pennsylvanians pay $7,716 a year in tuition to enroll full-time.

SUNY officials said Pennsylvania already is the top source after New Jersey of out-of-state students on its campuses, with slightly more than 2,100 enrolled.

In addition to Albany, the SUNY locations participating in the flagship match are Alfred State, Brockport, Buffalo State, Canton, Cobleskill, Cortland, Delhi, College of Environmental Science & Forestry, Farmingdale State College, Fredonia, Geneseo, Maritime. Morrisville, New Paltz, Old Westbury, Oneonta, Oswego, Plattsburgh, Potsdam, Purchase College and SUNY Polytechnic Institute. The University at Buffalo and Stony Brook University, SUNY’s flagship campuses, are not participating.

When deciding whether to go to school close to home or out of state, Harnisch said, students and their families should weigh the various options and keep in mind scholarship and state financial aid policies.

“For students and families,” he said, “this can provide an opportunity for lower tuition rates for an institution they may be interested in.”