10 Public Colleges With the Cheapest Out-of-State Tuition and Fees

The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College and The Short List: Grad School to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search.

For many students, in-state public schools look like the cheapest four-year college option. But that's not completely true.

Some regional colleges and universities are so cheap, even for out-of-staters, that they give Home State University a run for its money.

[Discover 11 tuition-free colleges.]

The average resident tuition and fees in the 2014-2015 academic year is $8, 794, according to data reported by 413 ranked public colleges in an annual survey by U.S. News. For out-of-state students, the average among these 10 cheapest schools is slightly lower, at $8,491.

Among all ranked public schools reporting data to U.S. News, out-of-state tuition and fees average $20,105.

[Explore the top public colleges and universities.]

Mississippi's Delta State University, tied with five other schools at No. 92 among Regional Universities (South), charges nonresidents the least in tuition and fees -- just $6,187 in 2014-2015, the same amount that it charges in-state students.

Most of these public institutions are regional colleges and universities in Midwestern or Western states that may not entice many 18-year-olds the way, say, New York or California do.

But a Pennsylvanian student eyeing the in-state price tags of Pennsylvania State University or the University of Pittsburgh, both topping $17,000 a year, might start to find them more appealing.

[Get in-state tuition at out-of-state colleges.]

The five military academies, which charge zero dollars in tuition in return for postgraduate service, were excluded from this list, as were schools designated by U.S. News as Unranked. U.S. News did not calculate a numerical ranking for Unranked programs because they did not meet certain criteria that U.S. News requires to be numerically ranked.

Below are the least expensive public colleges for out-of-state students, based on tuition and required fees. These figures do not include room and board, books, transportation and other costs.

* RNP denotes an institution that is ranked in the bottom one-fourth of its rankings category. U.S. News calculates a rank for the school but has decided not to publish it.

Don't see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find tuition, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.

U.S. News surveyed nearly 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2014 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News' data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News' rankings of Best Colleges or Best Graduate Schools . The tuition and fees data above are correct as of Sept. 30, 2014.

Susannah Snider is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering paying for college and graduate school. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at ssnider@usnews.com.