Anonymous
Post 03/06/2026 19:48     Subject: Always Wished for DC In-State Tuition Reciprocity
this doesn't make sense.

maybe nearby states, but all, haha, no.

if you want in-state tuition, live in a state where your kids want to go to school.
Anonymous
Post 03/06/2026 18:55     Subject: Always Wished for DC In-State Tuition Reciprocity
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I keep coming back to the idea that I don't want DC TAG, at any amount, really. I just want a universal US-wide reciprocity for in-state tuition for DC students. If I had that, I'd pay the price. We have UDC which is . . . mostly not what we want. So how about nationwide reciprocity for our, what, 20,000 students a year who are ready for college?

At least some kind of agreement with Maryland and Virginia.

Wisconsin and North Dakota students pay instate tuition for U of MN. Not sure why our neighbors couldn't help out.


This is the obvious solution, especially because Virginia and Maryland both benefit economically from DC's existence.

It also would better serve the purpose of an "in state university" because part of what makes in state college affordable is proximity to your family, which cuts down on travel costs and enables families to more efficiently support kids through college. While no longer as common, it also enables some kids to live at home while they attend college, a huge benefit.

Unfortunately, MD and VA will never agree to this because they already feel like their state options are oversubscribed, especially the flagships and the more competitive programs. VA residents will never acquiesce to adding 20k DC grads to the instate pools for UVA or W&M. Same with MD an UMD.

Perhaps an arrangement could be made regarding the smaller, less well known state schools in MD and VA. I am pretty sure a couple of them already offer DC grads in-state tuition if they have above a certain grade point average, though I'd have to look that up.


Exactly! If MD/VA agreed, it would most likely exclude UVA/VaTech/W&M and UMD. Look at the Western Undergrad exchange program----Top schools like University of Washington, Colorado U, and all the "top/good CA schools everyone wants to attend" are not included. So while it's a great deal for many, they have eliminated the schools in the T100 from the program largely. So most in DC would still be unhappy if those schools were not included in a DC/MD/VA exchange.

Anonymous
Post 03/06/2026 18:49     Subject: Always Wished for DC In-State Tuition Reciprocity
Anonymous wrote:Why would the states agree to that without some sort of compensation from DC? You don’t pay taxes in any of those states. And for DC, that would be way for expensive than DC TAG to make up the difference between in state and OOS tuition.


This 1000%. If you have lived in DC, you knew there were no real "in state" options. So you had the choice to move to either VA or MD to gain access to many more instate schools. Both have great options, but VA is ranked as one of the top 3 states for State schools. It has great schools and a wide variety of instate options from UVA/VaTech/W&M all the way to Radford (and others---places where a 900 and 3.0 will still get you into college, sometimes even with lower stats). So before HS, you could have chosen to move.

But yes, you haven't paid taxes for those lower rates, so why should you get to save without the input?

Anonymous
Post 03/06/2026 17:58     Subject: Always Wished for DC In-State Tuition Reciprocity
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I think TAG is the most practical solution, but it needs to actually increase to stay in line with the actual tuition costs every year. Not just nominally increase every couple decades when you can pry something out of Congressional coffers.


This. When I graduated from DCPS years ago, DC TAG covered the gap between IS and OOS tuition costs. It just needs to gradually increase each year.


Maybe we could tie that to a bill that keeps nominal tuition at state schools from growing any faster than DCTAG does. That would offer something for everyone.
Anonymous
Post 03/06/2026 17:54     Subject: Always Wished for DC In-State Tuition Reciprocity
Anonymous wrote:I think TAG is the most practical solution, but it needs to actually increase to stay in line with the actual tuition costs every year. Not just nominally increase every couple decades when you can pry something out of Congressional coffers.


This. When I graduated from DCPS years ago, DC TAG covered the gap between IS and OOS tuition costs. It just needs to gradually increase each year.
Anonymous
Post 03/06/2026 17:46     Subject: Always Wished for DC In-State Tuition Reciprocity
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I keep coming back to the idea that I don't want DC TAG, at any amount, really. I just want a universal US-wide reciprocity for in-state tuition for DC students. If I had that, I'd pay the price. We have UDC which is . . . mostly not what we want. So how about nationwide reciprocity for our, what, 20,000 students a year who are ready for college?

At least some kind of agreement with Maryland and Virginia.

Wisconsin and North Dakota students pay instate tuition for U of MN. Not sure why our neighbors couldn't help out.

After merit and DCTAG, tuition for my DC resident kid at UMN would be an extremely affordable $8,000/year. Why exactly am I supposed to be mad about that?
Anonymous
Post 03/06/2026 16:20     Subject: Always Wished for DC In-State Tuition Reciprocity
Reciprocity is a two-way street. DC has nothing with which to reciprocate.
Anonymous
Post 03/06/2026 16:04     Subject: Always Wished for DC In-State Tuition Reciprocity
MD resident here. I do understand why MD and VA don’t give in-state tuition to DC residents but I think it would be reasonable if they provided a “border scbolarship” to DC to bring down the costs a little. Maybe combine it with an income limit based on family size? So 250k for a family of a single kid, 300k for a family of 2 kids, etc? TAG still leaves a really large gap for middle class families.

While our child could go in-state in MD, they didn’t have the stats for UMD and the other options didn’t feel like a good fit. They chose an OOS university that uses merit aid to attract kids from other geographical areas making it equivalent to MD.
Anonymous
Post 03/06/2026 16:01     Subject: Always Wished for DC In-State Tuition Reciprocity
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I keep coming back to the idea that I don't want DC TAG, at any amount, really. I just want a universal US-wide reciprocity for in-state tuition for DC students. If I had that, I'd pay the price. We have UDC which is . . . mostly not what we want. So how about nationwide reciprocity for our, what, 20,000 students a year who are ready for college?

At least some kind of agreement with Maryland and Virginia.

Wisconsin and North Dakota students pay instate tuition for U of MN. Not sure why our neighbors couldn't help out.


Because there are also a lot of MN students who want to go to WI. That's the reason for reciprocity. Both states get something their residents want. It's not that theyre just being nice neighbors. No VA or MD students want to go to UDC.