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South Dakota Offers Higher Ed Bargain to Non-Residents and Graduate Students

Why is South Dakota beating Minnesota on freshman import-export ratio? One logical explanation is price. According to the FY2014 Accountability Report to the Council on Higher Education Policy Goals, Performance, and Accountability that the Board of Regents will discuss at next week's meeting, South Dakota offers the best bargain on higher education in the region for out-state students:

Source: p. 21
Source: South Dakota Board of Regents, FY2014 Accountability Report to the Council on Higher Education Policy Goals, Performance, and Accountability, posted November 2014, p. 21

South Dakota's the best deal in America's upper middle for non-resident undergraduates, resident graduate students, and non-resident graduate students. Oddly, we short our own resident undergraduates, who could go to school more cheaply by taking up residence in North Dakota, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, or Nebraska.

This Regental report acknowledges that a higher percentage of South Dakota students graduate in debt than in 48 other states (only New Hampshire at 76% beats our 72%). But as demonstrated by our lower costs and remarkably low student-loan default rate, those students have more manageable debt. The same outfit that ranks us #2 for percentage of students in debt agrees, ranking our average student debt 29th in the nation.

p.s.: The Regents offer a separate report on graduate debt, which notes that the percentage of South Dakota public university students graduating with debt has declined from 84% in 2006 to 72% in 2013. South Dakota's private institution grads were following a similar arc through 2009 but then bounced back up above 80%.

26 Comments

  1. Tim 2014.11.28

    If I'm reading this correctly, and please correct me if I'm wrong, our single party rulers have decided to screw South Dakotans and pass the savings on to out of staters?

  2. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.11.28

    Tim, you could make that argument. One big part of the disparity is the unique disparity in undergraduate and graduate costs. South Dakota is the only state on the list above that makes undergraduate education more expensive that graduate education. The other states in the region put an average 10% premium on graduate residents over undergraduate residents.

    In both undergrad and grad, the other states in the region put a 67–68% premium on non-residents. The non-resident premium in South Dakota is just 15% for undergrads and 40% for grads.

  3. Tim 2014.11.28

    Ok, let me make sure I have this, shaft South Dakotans and let out of staters get their education here cheaper so they can take that cheaper education back where they came from, then whine because nobody stays here after college to make 35k a year when they can go home and make 55k a year or more if you graduate from School of Mines. Ah, South Dakota common sense, can't beat it.

  4. Wayne B. 2014.11.28

    Tim, you could look at it that way...

    Or you could look at it from what the data tells me.

    South Dakota is $175 lower than the average of 8 states for undergraduate resident costs. That's pretty competitive for not having oil money to supplement our coffers (ND & MT).

    We could complain nonresident grad students come here, get educated, and leave... but by having the most "affordable" nonresident grad programs, we supplement the ranks of our grad programs and thus can get away with cheaper costs for our resident grad students. Raise out of state tuition costs and you'll get fewer out of staters coming, which means fewer professors or increased costs for those who do to our universities.

    It's been a while since I looked at reciprocity agreements for the states. I wonder how that impacts the average nonresident costs based on from where our nonresidents hail.

  5. bearcreekbat 2014.11.28

    Another way to look at it - We all benefit from encouraging people from out of state to come to SD for advanced education degrees. Even if the grads choose to work in another state they now have a connection to SD.

    Arguing that non-residents are somehow less deserving humans than residents is a type of pernicious tribalism that tends to pit one group of humans against other groups for no rational reason.

  6. Donald Pay 2014.11.28

    I've really appreciated your in-depth series on SD higher education, and the comparisons with nearby states. The Board of Regents and its institutions are very important to the state, but they get almost no coverage in the media.

    I've always thought the higher ed system needed a huge reform. There's too much bureaucracy eating up dollars that should go into students, programs and updated classrooms.

    Why not consolidate all campuses into one system? I don't mean axing campuses, but duplicating all the bureaucracy at every stinking campus is just nuts.

  7. Tim 2014.11.28

    Arguing that non-residents are somehow less deserving humans than residents is a type of pernicious tribalism that tends to pit one group of humans against other groups for no rational reason.
    BCB, no where in my post did I say or even insinuate that non-resident were "less deserving", I would like to know why the state thinks they should get a better deal than the people that live here.

  8. Tim 2014.11.28

    BCB, here's another way to look at it, our tax dollars goes to help fund higher education in this state, shouldn't residents at least be on equal footing with somebody that doesn't live here?

  9. Moses 2014.11.29

    C.H for the republican legislators looking at your comment section, it must be rocket science. As daughter make about 27 grand more in Maryland teaching than she would here.But then again they don;t know how to fund it, resign then.

  10. Tim 2014.11.29

    Moses, they know exactly what their doing, putting that 27k in their pockets. The fact that our kids are paying the price in teacher shortages and maybe not getting the best educators here is just collateral damage for them.

  11. Tim 2014.11.29

    oops*they're*

  12. Wayne B. 2014.11.29

    Tim: "BCB, here's another way to look at it, our tax dollars goes to help fund higher education in this state, shouldn't residents at least be on equal footing with somebody that doesn't live here?"

    Wait, Tim... you do realize out of state students pay more for a SD education than our residents do, right? The state subsidizes resident tuition costs.

  13. Tim 2014.11.29

    Wayne, not according to the chart above, I would have to question who has the facts right. I seen no state help or subsidies for my son when he was looking to go to BHSU. Where would one find the facts you state Wayne?

  14. Wayne B. 2014.11.29

    Tim,

    Undergraduate In State Cost: $14,037
    Undergraduate Out of State Cost: $16,202

    The out of staters pay an extra $1,625 on average.

    It's hidden in the state budget, but the state does subsidize resident education costs. There's also the opportunity scholarship (that still exists, right?).

    I found the FY2012 regental statbook:
    http://www.sdbor.edu/mediapubs/factbook/documents/FY12Factbook.pdf
    Page 41 shows all the sources of aid.

    Cory, you don't happen to have a more recent copy?

  15. Tim 2014.11.29

    "It's hidden in the state budget", really?

  16. Tim 2014.11.29

    Oh wait, I forgot, they are always hiding things from us, silly legislators.

  17. Wayne B. 2014.11.29

    Tim, by "hidden" I mean it's funneled to the BOR and then to the universities. It's not a direct subsidy to your son in the form of a rebate or check written directly to him.

  18. Tim 2014.11.29

    It was hidden pretty well when the bill for the first year came too. He decided he didn't want the debt and went into the military.

  19. bearcreekbat 2014.11.29

    Tim, I would not object to your proposition that SD residents should be "on equal footing with somebody that doesn't live here." I would object to discriminating against someone seeking to advance his or her education merely because they grew up in another state, or choose to live in another state.

  20. Tim 2014.11.29

    You know, no where in any of my posts do I mention discrimination, undeserving humans or any of that. I merely stated that, based on the info in the post, I thought residents should get the same breaks non-residents get.

  21. Tim 2014.11.29

    I have one person telling me that Cory's info in this article is wrong and the state does treat residents better, but Cory's info, which this post addresses disputes this, then he says it's hidden in some BS with the BOR, well we all know how hidden works here, trust us nothing to see here. Then I have another person who says I'm advocating discrimination because I want our people treated the same as non-residents BASED ON CORY'S INFO IN THE POST. You all think what you want.

  22. Wayne B. 2014.11.29

    Holy Hannah, Tim.

    This isn't the Illuminati. Right there from Cory's post it says South Dakotan undergrads (your son!) get by CHEAPER than out of state undergrads. That's thanks to your and my tax dollars. Heck, if you followed that link, your son at BHSU would be paying $2000 more if the state didn't subsidize his education.

    Residents get it cheaper. Cory's data isn't wrong. Cory's table may be confusing because it put in state undergrad costs next to in state graduate costs.

  23. Tim 2014.11.29

    "South Dakota's the best deal in America's upper middle for non-resident undergraduates, resident graduate students, and non-resident graduate students. Oddly, we short our own resident undergraduates, who could go to school more cheaply by taking up residence in North Dakota, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, or Nebraska."
    Must be that trade school education I have versus your University education, guess I can't read either.

  24. Jana 2014.11.29

    It ain't selling if you are giving it away...much like our GOED loves to give away South Dakota taxpayer dollars.

    Come on Pierre...if you place such a low value on our state, shy would anyone want to pay a competitive price...

    Stand proud boys and charge a fair price.

  25. bearcreekbat 2014.11.29

    Tim, thanks for clearing up your views on treating non-residents differently. I apologize for suggesting you supported discriminating against them.

  26. Wayne B 2014.11.30

    Tim,

    You keep moving the goalposts. I didn't realize we were talking about sending SD kids to other states to get residency level tuition (which most states make incredibly tough to acquire). In state tuition is still manageable.

    Maybe we could compete with oil money states if we closed down 4 of our 6 campuses or opened the Black Hills up for uranium mining and put all that revenue for tuition assistance. We spend a lot of finite tax dollars on redundancy.

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