Wow, now there is a loaded question. For starters, you must ask yourself where you are willing and not willing to go. You must then search out a university which has a B.A./B.S. in your field of study. Sometimes a good indicator for how good a program may or may not be is if the university’s program goes beyond the bachelor level (ie M.A./M.S. or PhD). These can also be an indicator as to the amount of resources available. Once you have narrowed down the list (no more than say 4 or 5). Do some area searches for apartments and houses and get a rough feel for the cost of living. Then start applying to the universities you wish to attend. Once you have been accepted to one or more, file your FAFSA. It would also not hurt to file for grants, scholarships, etc. You will need to contact the institution’s financial aid offices to find out what scholarships are available. These can often be found on the WEB sites but you may need to actually contact the institution via phone to get more information. Once your decision is made as to where you want to go, then it’s time to seriously look for a place to live as well as a place of employment. Depending on your finiacial needs, you may be able to land a work-study at the school. I recomend this for a few reasons. If you can land on of these, the staffs are usually fairly understanding when it comes to school and work. The pay is usually not great, but the hours can be flexed to suite your schedule. If you get to work in the department in which you are specializing, this can halp you to get to know the faculty and staff. This can open doors down the road. The trick is to make sure you stay focussed on school and not let the jobs pull you away. They have a tendancy to do this.

I know I threw a lot at you at once here, but I hope it helps. I have less than a year left on my M.A. an know how much of a pain all of this can be.

Here’s a good tip I heard from the office secretary in my department.

In Missouri, all you need I think is a Missouri Driver’s License for a year to be considered an in-state resident.

So, as you look for schools, you might want to check out that states requirements to become a resident of that state. School is cheaper.

I just fastweb, US News College Rankings, and google to give you a few ideas. I would just say use google.

I can tell you that the midwest US has the lowest cost of living in the US. The east and west coast states and Washington DC area are very high cost of living.

When you think about going out of state, if your new 4 year institution is a state run venture, remember you’ll end up paying about twice the amount than if you had stayed in state. In my experience, it has always been cheaper to live off campus. On campus requires you to buy the meal plan, which puts at least $1100 more atop of the $4-7k you’ll be paying for the dorm anyways.

I stayed in state after I got my associates at the local community college.