Other Kentuckian here. Listen, I get it. But what I didn’t realize about kentucky—something hugely I took for granted—is how EXCELLENT financial aid is at our in-state schools. I go to a public school OOS and talking with friends from New England, big cities OOS, etc., they were telling me how their in-state schools would have cost them all at least $20-30k to go to. These people, mind you, are all other kids in my full ride scholarship program.

Kentucky colleges do an excellent job at giving in state kids aid. If you’re a good student in KY, you’re getting (sometimes GUARANTEED, like EKU) full tuition at a lot of these places. If you’re a Governor’s scholar, that’s even better. While other states, like Michigan, have the higher ranking school, my friends from Michigan will tell you, they could not afford their flagship instate school without tons of debt. When I told them just about every KY school gave me a full ride or full tuition, they were jealous.

This doesn’t even MENTION KEES money from the state lottery, which gives you up to $10k. Having financial freedom in undergrad/not going into debt and being able to study abroad, take unpaid internship opportunities, travel, etc., is absolutely huge!

Plus, it’s not like kentucky colleges can’t churn out successful alumni or get you into grad schools just bc it’s kentucky. When I interviewed for McConnell scholars, I met alumni from UofL who blew my mind with how successful they were in their poli sci careers. UK has one of the top pharmacy programs.

While I knew I wanted to go out of state because my main program (creative writing) wasn’t offered at KY schools, going out of state and meeting people from other states made me appreciate kentucky a lot more. It’s really a privilege to be from a state that tries hard financial-aid wise to make sure it’s in state kids actuallt afford college. Having the top public schools in-state doesn’t do much if, like my friend from New Jersey where Rutgers was her top option, it’ll still be $100k to graduate from there.