Between 1998 and 2010, the number of UA freshmen from states that border Arkansas increased by nearly 400 percent. Meanwhile, the number of in-state students increased by about 7 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Among those bordering states, Texas has the largest UA enrollment with 736 freshmen. That is well above the 89 students from Texas in the 1998 freshman class.

Missouri also had a large increase of freshmen in this time period from 40 to 222, or an increase of a little more than 450 percent, and Oklahoma had the third highest increase from 89 to 173, or an increase of a little more than 94 percent.

The number of UA freshmen from contiguous states is higher than any state institution in Arkansas.

Arkansas Tech, for example, had just 16 freshmen from Texas in 2010, eight from Missouri and 11 from Oklahoma.

Arkansas Tech’s enrollment of less than 2,000 freshmen in 2010 contrasts with the UA freshman class of more than 3,800 that year.

At Arkansas Tech last year, 3 percent of the freshman class came from states that border Arkansas. In that same year, nearly 35 percent of UA freshmen came from bordering states.

ASG President Michael Dodd, who is from Kansas City, Mo., looked at a few colleges before narrowing his choices to Arkansas and Texas. One important element made the UA an obvious choice for him: “Texas was about 35,000 a year with all the expenses and Arkansas was 10-to-15,000 at the most,” he said.

The cost of out-of-state tuition at the University of Texas for this year was $32,506; room and board cost more than $10,000, according to College Board.

This means that an out-of-state student, after adding the cost of books, fees and other incidentals, would have to pay about $45,000 a year to attend the University of Texas at Austin.

At the UA, however, the yearly tuition cost for a student from a contiguous state would be nearly $1,000 more than an in-state student would pay, said Steve Voorhies, manager of news and media relations.

This means that a UA student from a contiguous state would pay a little more than $8,000 in tuition a year and a little more than $8,000 in room and board, according to College Board.  So a UA student from a contiguous state would pay a little less than $20,000 a year.

Over four years, Texas residents would save about $100,000 by attending the UA as opposed to the University of Texas at Austin.

However, tuition cost was not the only reason Dodd chose to come to the UA.

“The number one reason I came here is because I thought it was more comfortable and down to earth,” he said.