A Losing Strategy?

By ANNE K. WALTERS

Looking to out-of-state students to close budget gaps backfires for some public colleges

Veronica Woodlief has always wanted to study marine biology but is not too enthusiastic about the landlocked programs offered by colleges in her home state, Pennsylvania.

She wants to attend the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. But it charges out-of-state students about $13,600 annually in tuition and fees — more than three and a half times what it charges in-state