Cost of Attendance

Cost swings more on where Ellie applies than almost anything else on this list — and the single biggest lever is her Canadian citizenship. At the four Canadian schools she's considering, she's charged the domestic Canadian rate, not the international rate international applicants pay, and that alone makes Canada the cheapest tier on the whole table. Everything below is converted to all-in USD (tuition + mandatory fees + estimated living) so every school can be compared on one footing.

The big picture

  • Cheapest overall are the Canadian schools — domestic tuition as a Canadian citizen puts UBC Okanagan, Trent, UBC Vancouver, and McGill all under roughly $82,000 for four years, well below every US option except University of Victoria (the single cheapest school on the list).
  • Her WA publics (UW Seattle, WSU) are the mid-tier in-state anchors — not the cheapest, but a solid, dependable baseline since she already qualifies for in-state rates there.
  • Oregon State is pricey as shown — it's modeled at full nonresident tuition because OSU's Western Undergraduate Exchange discount is a competitive scholarship, not an automatic rate like at Idaho or Montana. Winning it would cut tuition substantially, but that's upside, not something to count on.
  • Harvard's cost depends entirely on financial aid — the sticker price is the highest on the table, but Harvard meets 100% of demonstrated need with grants, so the real cost for a family of modest income can end up far below the sticker (and possibly below several public nonresident options).

Full comparison, cheapest to priciest

Tap a column header to sort.
School Tuition basis (for her) Annual all-in (USD) 4-year total (USD) Notes
University of Victoria (Victoria BC) Canadian-domestic (BC, no surcharge) ~$13,111 ~$52,445 Cheapest school on the list. Entrance scholarships exist but aren't published; Running Start may trim a little via BC Transfer Guide credits.
UBC Okanagan (Kelowna BC) Canadian-domestic (no surcharge) ~$14,292 ~$57,168 Domestic tuition plus lower-cost Kelowna living keeps this near the bottom. Running Start credit is Limited (case-by-case), no reliable time cut.
Trent University (Peterborough ON) (also-consider) Canadian-domestic (Ontario-regulated) ~$15,287 ~$61,148 Small wildlife/ecology-friendly school; domestic rate keeps it near the bottom. An automatic ~CAD 3,000 entrance scholarship isn't even netted into this figure.
UBC Vancouver Canadian-domestic (BC/Canadian citizen) ~$16,334 ~$65,336 Vancouver living costs are the swing factor here, not tuition. Canadian-citizen entrance scholarships up to CAD 80,000 over 4 years exist (competitive) and could cut net cost further.
McGill University (Montreal QC) Canadian-domestic, out-of-province rate ~$20,371 ~$81,484 She pays the non-Quebec Canadian rate, about double what a Quebec resident pays — she'd need to establish Quebec residency to get the lower rate. Entrance scholarships (CAD 3,000–12,000/yr) are available by separate application.
University of Toronto (Toronto ON) Canadian-domestic (Arts & Science) ~$27,907 ~$111,629 Tuition itself is cheap — Toronto's high on-campus housing cost is what drives this one up. Off-campus/shared housing could bring it down; OSAP/UTAPS need-based grants may also apply.
University of Idaho (Moscow ID) (also-consider) WUE rate (WA resident qualifies) ~$34,472 ~$137,888 WUE here is a defined, bankable rate (not competitive), unlike Oregon State's. Running Start is fully Accepted — a 3-year credit-adjusted total runs closer to ~$103,416.
Cal Poly Humboldt (Arcata CA) (also-consider) WUE rate (WA resident qualifies) ~$34,474 off-campus (~$33,312 on-campus) ~$137,896 Strong shore-based/wetland/wildlife fit at a moderate WUE cost. Running Start is Accepted; a 3-year adjusted total runs closer to ~$103,422.
University of Washington – Seattle WA in-state (resident) ~$36,746 ~$146,984 Her in-state rate beats every US nonresident option except the WUE schools. Living at home drops this to roughly $24,044/yr. Running Start is fully seamless here — the strongest US case for shaving real time off the degree (3-year total ~$110,238).
Washington State University – Pullman WA in-state (resident) ~$38,700 ~$154,800 WA's priciest in-state public, but still well below every nonresident option. Running Start is fully Accepted (3-year total ~$116,100).
University of Montana (Missoula MT) (also-consider) WUE rate (WA resident qualifies) ~$39,334 ~$157,336 WUE saves roughly $21,120/yr off full nonresident. Strong wildlife/forestry/freshwater fit for her interests. Running Start Accepted (3-year total ~$118,002); requires 15+ credits/semester to keep the WUE rate.
Colorado State University (Fort Collins CO) (also-consider) WUE rate (WA resident qualifies) ~$49,066 ~$196,264 The WUE discount is smaller here because Colorado's own resident tuition is already high. Strong ecology/wildlife/forestry program. Running Start Accepted (3-year total ~$147,198).
Oregon State University – Corvallis Out-of-state nonresident (WUE not automatic) ~$61,893 ~$247,572 Shown at full nonresident because OSU's WUE is a limited, competitive scholarship, not a guaranteed rate. If awarded, tuition could drop toward ~$18k/yr. Running Start is Accepted (3-year total ~$185,679).
University of Wisconsin–Madison (also-consider) Out-of-state nonresident (no regional discount) ~$65,120 ~$260,480 Wisconsin isn't a WUE state, so there's no regional discount to lean on. Elite limnology/freshwater program, but a full nonresident sticker. Running Start Accepted (3-year total ~$195,360).
Michigan State University (East Lansing MI) (also-consider) Out-of-state nonresident (no regional discount) ~$66,100 ~$264,400 Highest-cost non-Harvard option; Michigan is not a WUE state either. Strong Fisheries & Wildlife department. Running Start Accepted (3-year total ~$198,300).
Harvard College (Cambridge MA) Private sticker + income-based aid $86,926 sticker — see aid tiers below ~$347,704 (sticker only) Highest sticker on the table, but need-based aid can cut this dramatically — see the callout below. Running Start credit is Not Accepted; aid, not credits, is what drives Harvard's real cost.

Harvard: why the sticker price is misleading

Harvard's published all-in cost of $86,926/year is the number every applicant sees, but it is not what most admitted families actually pay. Harvard is need-blind in admissions and meets 100% of demonstrated financial need with grants, not loans. Its published aid tiers (not a guess at Ellie's own number) work roughly like this:

  • Family income under about $100,000/year: $0 parent contribution — tuition, room, and board are effectively free.
  • Family income up to about $200,000/year: at least full tuition is covered, with the family paying a reduced room-and-board share on a sliding scale.
  • Family income above about $200,000/year: aid is assessed case-by-case, and the family generally pays more, up to the full sticker.

The real number depends entirely on family finances and comes from Harvard's Net Price Calculator, not this table. For a family under roughly $200k in income, Harvard's actual net cost can fall below several of the public nonresident options above, despite having the highest sticker price on the list.

How these numbers were built

Every school is put on the same footing: annual all-in USD = tuition (at the rate that actually applies to Ellie) + mandatory fees + estimated living costs (housing, food, books, personal, transport), then multiplied by four for a four-year total. Canadian figures were totaled in CAD and converted using 1 USD = 1.4205 CAD (equivalently, 1 CAD = 0.7040 USD), the Bank of Canada / market rate as of July 3, 2026 — the Canadian totals will shift somewhat if that rate moves.

Tuition rate assumptions, per her actual situation: all four Canadian schools use the domestic Canadian-citizen rate, never the international rate (McGill specifically uses the out-of-province Canadian rate, since she isn't a Quebec resident). UW and WSU use the WA in-state rate. Montana, Idaho, Cal Poly Humboldt, and Colorado State use the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) rate, since Washington is a WUE state and these are out-of-state schools where she qualifies for it. Oregon State is shown at full nonresident rather than WUE, because OSU only awards WUE competitively rather than automatically — it's treated as upside, not a baseline she can count on. Wisconsin–Madison and Michigan State use full nonresident rates, since neither Wisconsin nor Michigan is a WUE state. Harvard is shown at its sticker price alongside its published income-based aid tiers, rather than a guessed net number.

Where her guide separately rates Running Start credit as "Accepted" (all the US publics here, via standard community-college transfer), a credit-adjusted 3-year total is also given in the notes, assuming roughly one year is shaved off. The four Canadian schools rate Running Start as "Limited" — transfer credit is evaluated course-by-course and capped at about the first two years — so no reliable time-to-degree reduction is assumed for them.

Living-cost estimates are each institution's own published cost-of-attendance figures where available, and are estimates, not guarantees — actual spending (especially off-campus housing choices) can run higher or lower. The University of Victoria and University of Toronto rows were computed from the same verified tuition and living data and exchange rate used for the rest of the table, since those two schools needed to be added separately to complete the set. All figures reflect 2026–27 published or most-recent estimates and will be finalized by each institution or governing board later.

Sources