1) How much would an in-state student expect to pay in total tuition, room and board for the 2016-2017 school year? How has that changed in the last year on a percentage change basis?
An in-state student at the University of Arkansas will pay $24,302 in total and that has increased in the past year by 3.4 percent. At the University of Missouri, an in-state student will pay $14,274 if they live on campus and $25,916 if they are off campus and that price has increased by 7.7 percent and 7.2 percent, respectively.
2)How much would an out-of-state student expect to pay in total tuition, room and board for the 2016-2017 school year? How has that changed in the last year on a percentage change basis? How does that differ from in-state students?
An out of state student at the University of Arkansas will pay $38,650 in total which is an increase of five percent. While, the in-state tuition only had a 3.4 percent change. An out of state student at the University of Missouri will pay **incorrect**$25,892 Correct: $42,290 in total which is an increase of 2.9 percent from last year. In-state tuition only increased by 0.1 percent.
4) Which category increased the most from the 2016-2017 school years? Raw change? Percent change?
For Arkansas out of state tuition and fees increased the most in the last year by 6.1 percent and by $1,342.
For Missouri their other on campus and off campus increased the most by 27.1 percent and by $1,014.
5) Write a lead for a story based on your analysis.
Tuition and fees at the University of Arkansas and the University of Missouri are increasing yearly with small overall percentage change. **This is pretty generic. What about the difference between out of state student tuition and in-state students? It is $14,348 in Arkansas — for that amount of money, you could buy a used car.**
6) What other information and/or sources would help you finish this story?
A helpful source would be more demographics about the university, what type of housing to better compare the numbers, and an expert on how universities set their tuition cost.
Lindsey – I made a suggestion on the lede – it was a bit generic and could use some specificity and detail. See the note on the out-of-state tuition in Missouri. The spreadsheet was correct.