Your statement is not 100% correct. For public universities in the US, students, whether they are international students or out of state students, they both pay a much higher rate than students from that state that the university is located in. An example would be a US citizen from New York decides to go to a public university in Colorado. That New York student would have to pay the out of state tuition. The international student, who is obviously out of state, would also pay the same tuition amount as the US citizen from New York to attend the same university in Colorado.