Good News: To Draw NJ Students, the Univ. of Maine Will Match Rutgers In-State Tuition & Fees

RobinM2

Dec 12, 2015 at 2:10pm Edited

Good News for NJ HS Grads, according to an article on NJ.com (http://www.nj.com/education/2015/12/new_england_college_trying_to_poach_nj_students.html), one out-of-state school is giving NJ students a 50% discount to attend:

An out-of-state college wants New Jersey's students. And it's willing to cut its price in order to them get then. The University of Maine,
a public college in Orono, will let New Jersey students with a 3.0 and
1050 on the SAT attend the school for the same price of in-state tuition
and fees at Rutgers University — about a 50 percent discount.

The deal is part of an initiative to draw more students from
out-of-state as competition increases for America's declining number of
college students. Similar offers will be extended to students from five
other northeast states, including Pennsylvania, according to the
university.

"The University of Maine strives for diversity and academic
excellence in its student body," said Joel Wincowski, the college's
interim vice president for enrollment management. "Attracting students
from New Jersey, as well as other states, is critical to meet those
goals."

More than 650 New Jersey students applied to the University of Maine
last year, but there are only 89 students from New Jersey currently
enrolled, according to the school.

The best part about this news, I think, is it might spark a tuition discount war to attract NJ students which makes a lot of sense since our students are among the brightest, if not the brightest, in the country (for example, NJ's PSAT 2016 cut off score for the National Merit Scholarship is higher than every other state this year, http://www.fairtest.org/sites/default/files/NationalMeritSemifinalist2016-scores.pdf). While I think Rutgers is the best bet for our students, it is becoming difficult to get into Rutgers unless you have a very good GPA and good test scores. In fact, it is already common to be admitted only to Rutgers Newark or Rutgers Camden if you don't have top stats. The Maine School is offering this deal to all NJ Students with just 3.0 GPA and SAT of 1050, stats that might not even get you into Rutgers any more, so this would be a very nice deal. Now, if the Big Ten Schools would just offer such a deal ....

lisat

Dec 13, 2015 at 2:21pm Edited

Do you know what the out-of-state tuition is for UMO, and the instate tuition for Rutgers? Just wondering the amount that is being saved. I'll read the article and find out. Thanks. Very smart on Maine's part.