BOZEMAN – There is an increasing number of Montana students staying in-state for college. There are several factors as to why more Montana residents are staying in state, but many students find that one factor plays a major role.
Reach Higher Montana Advisor Katherine Foster said, “cost is also a big determining factor as to where they go and so that’s when the out of state school list might go down and in-state schools might become more relevant.”
Tuition is significantly less for Montana students to attend an in-state school. Not only is the post-secondary education for residents cost efficient, but they are getting great value for their dollar.
“It comes down to, ‘ok where can I get a quality education,’ and the Montana University system schools offer a really good education to students and so they realize they can get a good education staying here in Montana. They don’t have to go to an out of state school,” Foster said.
Director of News Service at MSU Michael Becker said, “Montana State University has got a real growing reputation as a very high-quality place to get an affordable higher education.”
The growing reputation has surely made its way to high school seniors across the state, making Montana State University one of students’ top choices. As of last year, 10,000 of the 16,700 students at MSU are in-state residents.
MSU is providing endless support to ensure students successfully finish in at least four years to make their degree even more cost efficient.
“Some of the programs we have in place to make sure they’re graduating on time, including our Freshman 15 program where we encourage them to take a higher credit load so that they can take advantage of tuition savings and graduate on time with as little debt as possible and we think that is a big draw for many students including Montana students,” Becker said.
Reporting by Emma Hamilton for MTN News
