Before attending CMU, John Waters had not lived a day in Michigan.

But the Georgia senior receives in-state tuition because his father took classes at CMU’s satellite campus in Atlanta.

“I wanted to be a teacher and (CMU) has a great teaching program,” Waters said. “I wanted to be on my own, grow up a little more, the (Legacy tuition rate) has really helped me a lot.”

The Alumni Legacy Award is offered to out-of-state students who have had a parent or grandparent that graduated from CMU with either an undergraduate or post-graduate degree, according to Director of Admissions Betty Wagner.

The CMU Alumni Association values the award at over $50,000 over a four-year period.

However, the university does not grant special admission to legacy students, said Marcie Otteman, senior associate director of undergraduate admissions.

Currently, CMU charges $324 per credit hour for a Michigan resident enrolled in the fall 2008 semester, compared to $753 for a non-Michigan resident. According to the Registrar’s official enrollment reports for the fall 2008 semester, 1,136 of the university’s 20,246 undergraduate students are from outside of the state of Michigan. Registrar Karen Hutslar said her office does not keep track of how many students receive the award.

The award has been around for the past decade and Wagner estimates that roughly 200 students have taken advantage of it. She says that the program attracts students who normally would not consider attending CMU.

“Out of state tuition is very prohibitive,” Wagner said. “We look at this as a way to gain students who would not otherwise come to CMU.”

Wagner said the award was put in place when the university’s alumni base began to grow outside of Michigan, but the alumni still wanted their children to enjoy the same experiences in college that they had when they went to CMU.

“We have many alums who want to show off the campus and how it has changed since they graduated,” she said.

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E-mail the author: Joe Martinez