Tuition Break: The New England Regional Student Program

 In an earlier blog, I provide several college choice solutions throughout the state for Connecticut residents with value and cost in mind. Here’s one more: The New England Regional Student Program (NES). Undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students interested in a particular field of study (often highly specialized!) and not available at their own in-state public universities can attend a participating NES college without paying full out-of-state tuition. Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Rhode Island all are part of this NES consortium. They benefit from avoiding the high costs and duplication inefficiencies associated with specialized fields, and students benefit from greater access to these high demand majors such as pharmacy, dental medicine, biomedical engineering, forestry, aquaculture, design, meteorology, health care management, Japanese and neurobiology. If you’re interested in forestry, for example, you won’t find the major within Connecticut borders. However, you can apply to the University of New Hampshire and if accepted, your tuition bill could include a tuition break of up to $7,000.  According to the New England Board of Higher Education, “in the 2009-10 academic year, over 8,700 New England residents saved an estimated $51 million in tuition because of the RSP”. Read more at http://www.nebhe.org/programs-overview/rsp-tuition-break/overview/