Listworthy: The “Best Of” WUE

This quarter’s Listworthy is all about finding some of the best bargains outside of California for California families. First, what’s WUE? That stands for Western Undergraduate Exchange – a group of approximately 80 four-year, public, not-for-profit colleges and universities in the Western United States that participate in a tuition reciprocity program, or in layman’s terms, these schools offer discounts on out-of-state tuition so their in-state population can gain access to similar out-of-state discounts (and really to help the participating schools make more money).

The rule of thumb with participating WUE schools is, if qualified, a student/family will be asked to pay no more than 150% of the in-state tuition amount (and not the out-of-state tuition amount). For most of these schools, additional merit-based aid may be added on top of the existing WUE discount, making for a real bargain! I encourage you to be a steward of your own financial education and ask that you visit the WUE website for more specific information. The link is show at the end of the next paragraph.

This piece, which is a combination of the most recent Forbes.com college rankings and my humble opinion, represent the top fifteen (15) schools that are currently participating in the WUE program that are ALSO accessible to California families (not all WUE schools allow CA to participate). If you wish to see the entire WUE participant list or would like to learn more about the program, please feel free to visit their website: http://www.wiche.edu/wue.

1. University of Arizona

2. University of Utah

3. Colorado State University

4. Washington State University

5. University of Nevada, Reno

6. New Mexico Institute of Mining & Tech.

7. University of Wyoming

8. University of Hawaii - Manoa

9. University of Colorado – Denver

10. North Dakota State University

11. University of Idaho

12. University of New Mexico

13. Northern Arizona University

14. Boise State University

15. Oregon Institute of Technology