Barry Dahl dot com

Loved seeing this article on MPRnews about how Minnesota residents can save big bucks by sending their kids either the UM or UW. Around these parts, that usually means the University of Minnesota or the University of Wisconsin.

Not the case this time. The photo at the left is one of the many beautiful buildings at the University of Manitoba. That’s the UM in this story. Further down is a shot from the University of Winnipeg – that’s the UW.

Turns out that Minnesota residents can attend either of these very fine institutions of higher learning for about half the price of the cost of attending those other UM and UW schools.

The reciprocity agreement between the state of Minnesota and the province of Manitoba has allowed Minnesota residents to pay in-province (or whatever) tuition rates at the Manitoba schools – and that agreement has been in place for over 20 years. That tuition rate is between $3,500 and $4,000 per year at the Manitoba schools. Compare that with about $8K per year at the U of Minnesota. Plus, the Gophers football team sucks out loud. Heck it’s cheaper to go to the Canadian schools than it is to attend one of the Minnesota two-year schools.

I’ve written extensively about the high cost of  college in the U.S. Maybe this is the ultimate “work-around” to get a high-quality education at an affordable rate.

Odd that only about 50 Minnesota students currently attend college in Manitoba. It’ll be even more odd if that number continues to be so low once people start finding out about the opportunity that lies in wait.

There is a catch, of course. American students attending in Canada are not eligible for Pell grants, although they are still eligible for student loans. Of course, if the red legislators gut the Pell program as they would like to do, this may become a moot point.

One additional catch. I currently live 5 minutes on the Wisconsin side of the Minnesota border. Can we work out a similar reciprocity agreement between Manitoba and Wisconsin?

Filed under: Higher Ed |