Your Opportunity to Attend a Flagship

It would be wrong, however, to suggest that only rich students can afford out-of-state flagships. Some teenagers can capture a sizable price break from premiere state schools beyond their borders. The universities, however, typically reserve this money for their brightest applicants. Whether you qualify as one of those students depends largely on your statistics—grade point average, standardized test scores, and class rank.

State universities must process such a huge crush of applications that the admission offices can’t spend time getting to know each applicant. They don’t have the luxury of evaluating students holistically. Your numbers will have to do. And your numbers, frankly, must be stellar to qualify for serious money.