RANKING · THE OUT-OF-STATE TAX · MD

Maryland out-of-state tuition: what non-residents really pay.

Same Maryland public university, same degree. The only thing that changes is whether your driver’s license matches the state — and at University of Maryland-College Park that one fact swings your 30-year payoff by $980K. All 10 qualifying public universities in Maryland, ranked by the penalty. Every school below still pays off both ways. The tax isn’t the school — it’s the residency line.

IPEDS 2023 tuition · FREOPP 2021 earnings · BEA 2023 cost-of-living · resident vs non-resident, all else held equal · Maryland public four-year only · every school shown is NPV-positive both ways.

Maryland in-state and out-of-state tuition, in dollars

Median annual tuition · out-of-state
$22,411
Median annual tuition · Maryland resident
$9,885
Median non-resident premium, per year
$12,526

Sticker tuition before aid, across the 10 qualifying Maryland public universities below. Non-resident rates run from $12,336 to $40,306 a year (IPEDS 2023). The 30-year figures in the ranking compound that annual gap against what graduates actually earn.

  1. 1 University of Maryland-College Park tuition $11,505 in-state → $40,306 out-of-state / yr −$980K
  2. 2 University of Maryland-Baltimore County tuition $12,952 in-state → $30,308 out-of-state / yr −$591K
  3. 3 Towson University tuition $11,306 in-state → $28,326 out-of-state / yr −$579K
  4. 4 Frostburg State University tuition $9,998 in-state → $25,180 out-of-state / yr −$517K
  5. 5 University of Baltimore tuition $9,772 in-state → $23,490 out-of-state / yr −$467K
  6. 6 Morgan State University tuition $8,118 in-state → $21,331 out-of-state / yr −$450K
  7. 7 Bowie State University tuition $8,999 in-state → $19,839 out-of-state / yr −$369K
  8. 8 Salisbury University tuition $10,638 in-state → $21,332 out-of-state / yr −$364K
  9. 9 Coppin State University tuition $7,001 in-state → $13,789 out-of-state / yr −$231K
  10. 10 University of Maryland Global Campus tuition $7,992 in-state → $12,336 out-of-state / yr −$148K
How this is computed (and what it isn’t)

For each Maryland public four-year university we run the /worth-it calculator twice with everything identical except the tuition line: once at the school’s resident rate, once at its published non-resident rate. The gap is the “out-of-state tax” — the extra cost of non-residency, compounded over a 30-year net-present-value horizon. Both numbers use the same earnings and the same cost-of-living, so the difference is purely residency tuition.

We only list schools that stay NPV-positive both ways — the point isn’t that any school is a bad bet, it’s that the residency line, an accident of which state you grew up in, is worth more than most scholarships. The fix is usually mechanical: in-state status, a reciprocity agreement, or a transfer pathway.

↓ Download the data (CSV) · The full national dataset — filter the state column to MD for this page’s rows. Free to cite with attribution. · Methodology

Cite this:

LE TEEN (2026). “The out-of-state tax in Maryland: public universities ranked by the non-resident tuition penalty.” Data: IPEDS 2023 · FREOPP 2021 · BEA 2023. https://le-teen.com/rankings/out-of-state-tax/md

Questions

How much is out-of-state tuition in Maryland?
Across the 10 Maryland public universities we can honestly score, median annual non-resident sticker tuition is $22,411, ranging from $12,336 to $40,306 — before financial aid. That is $12,526 a year more than the $9,885 median Maryland residents pay at the same schools (IPEDS 2023).
How much is in-state tuition in Maryland?
Median annual resident sticker tuition across those same 10 Maryland public universities is $9,885, before financial aid. The residency line is worth $12,526 a year at the median, and up to $980K over a 30-year horizon at University of Maryland-College Park (IPEDS 2023 tuition, FREOPP 2021 earnings, BEA 2023 cost-of-living).
How much more does out-of-state tuition cost in Maryland?
At University of Maryland-College Park, paying non-resident tuition instead of resident costs $980K over a 30-year horizon — same school, same degree, the only difference is residency. That is the largest out-of-state penalty among the 10 Maryland public universities we can honestly score (IPEDS 2023 tuition, FREOPP 2021 earnings, BEA 2023 cost-of-living).
Is paying out-of-state tuition in Maryland worth it?
Every Maryland school in this ranking stays NPV-positive both ways — the resident and non-resident paths each still pay off — so the honest question isn’t “worth it or not,” it’s how large a cost the residency line adds. At the top of the list that cost is $980K over 30 years.
How do out-of-state students avoid non-resident tuition in Maryland?
The gap is a pricing line, not a difference in what you receive, so the fix is usually mechanical: establishing in-state residency, a regional reciprocity or tuition-exchange agreement, or a transfer pathway. The size of the prize is the number in this table — up to $980K over 30 years at University of Maryland-College Park.