I heard from a couple people that if you get into a public college out of state, that with the proper planning/work you could get in-state tuition on your second year of college. For example, if I got into UT Austin or UCLA (I’m out of state for these colleges) I would be able to pay in-state my second year. Is this true? If so, what work/planning would I need to do to get in-state tuition. If this turns out to be true, it opens up a whole lot of options of colleges I should consider.
Each school is different and you need to talk to their residency people. We were able to get in-state residency for our OOS son back in 2011 at UT, but we had some advantages since my parents lived in Austin and could include him on their property deed. I’ve heard they’ve tightened up the rules since then. We did find the UT residency department to be very cooperative - they answered all my questions and didn’t make me feel guilty for trying to get residency for our son. It was a lot of work, though.
It varies by state and in general the better the rep of the state university system the harder it is.
For example, unless you are considered “independent” (usually includes over 24, in the military/vet, or married) for CA your family would have to move to CA and make a plausible argument that it wasn’t for college tuition purposes.
Utah and Texas both have defined paths. Utah makes it fairly easy, Texas has more requirements, but it’s possible. Both Utah and Texas universities spell out exact requirements on their residency pages.
It is not a ‘competitive’ process like scholarships, but all of the requirements must be met. In Texas, the two most common methods are purchasing a residence (in students name but can be with parents help) or owning and maintaining a business. Depending on your situation, one of those may be an option.
This thread has some discussion of Utah’s residency implications:
Be sure to also check tuition exchange opportunities such as Western Union Exchange.
Each state has it’s own residency laws for public universities. Many require students to be legally and/or financially independent and live in state for at least 12 months along with all supporting documents, or require parents to live in state as their primary residence, pay state taxes, have state driver’s license, etc. and show supporting documents of 12 months residency. There are often exceptions for military assignments. To give an example, for SC residency we had to show purchase contract/deed for our new SC home, deed from previous state’s home proving we no longer owned it, income tax documents for SC, property tax records for SC, SC licenses for us and DD, all car registrations in SC, SC voter registrations, SC utility bills, letter from DH’S employer stating he was a designated remote employee with a home office in SC, etc. Everything had to show we had lived in state for 12 months. It was “easy” because we easily had all supporting documents; I just had to submit copies. There are a few states that have more lenient requirements, but you will need to check each state/university.
Here is info for Texas: https://texreg.sos.state.tx.us/public/readtac$ext.TacPage?sl=T&app=9&p_dir=N&p_rloc=181014&p_tloc=&p_ploc=1&pg=4&p_tac=&ti=19&pt=1&ch=21&rl=21
Here are requirements for UC’s: https://ucop.edu/residency/establishing-residency.html
Thank you guys for all the insight. It really helps a lot. Does anyone know how easy the requirements for UMD, uwash, UW-Madison, unc, or Umich are, and if it would be reasonable to get in-state tuition at any of these schools.
Not easily. Some say Utah. Better to find a school with merit that is better than a waiver or schools that just give waivers as part of their merit offers.
Otherwise your family is moving. Or you are taking a gap year in your desired state and working and supporting yourself.
There are ways to get in-state but it’s a lot of planning and typically a lot of life changing and investment.
But getting merit to make it happen ( or better), depending on stats and states desired, maybe not so hard to obtain equal or even better pricing (as long as you keep your grades up in school).
In general the schools that make it easier to get in state tuition are not the popular or highly ranked state schools like you want. They are instead schools that are off the radar of most out of state applicants, like Utah.
Chances of getting in state tuition at the schools you list are extremely low if not impossible.
The other thing to note is - waiver alone is not the full picture.
Western Carolina is $5k OOS, cheaper than most schools in state. UF, FSU, Purdue and more are all under $30k OOS.
So there are lower price options even if you didn’t get merit.
But if you are the kind of student who can get into UCLA or UT from OOS, you’re got the potential for many super low cost offers at big name schools.
Think about Alabama. No one reputation wise puts in on par with a UCLA or UT. Yet more national merit finalists attend school there than any other.
Smart kids have the opportunity to cash in - whether it’s an OOS waiver at FSU or Mizzou or huge offers at schools like Bama, Arizona, Miami Ohio, South Carolina and so many more - you can get a great education at a great price - even better than an in-state price - and attend college with lots of top shelf people!!
There are four requirements you must fulfill in order to be a California resident for purposes of tuition at UC. All these requirements must be met by the residence determination date (generally the first day of classes) of the term for which you request a resident classification.
1. Physical presence
You must be continuously physically present in California for more than one year (366 days) immediately prior to the residence determination date of the term for which you request resident status. If you moved to California primarily to attend the University of California, you are here for educational purposes and may not be eligible for a resident classification for purposes of tuition.
You must establish your intent to make California your home one year prior to the residence determination date of the term for which you request resident status.
If you’re an unmarried undergraduate under the age of 24 and your parent(s) are not California residents, you must be able to verify financial independence for the two full years immediately preceding the term you wish to enroll. Graduate students are presumed to be financially independent unless they were claimed as a dependent on their parents’ federal tax return for the most recent tax year.
We did that at University of Maryland. I bought part of my mom’s house, so I was on the deed. Child worked in MD for all years and paid MD taxes. She got a MD drivers license. My mother claimed her as a dependent on taxes and signed an affidavit that she financially supported my child. We got residency her sophomore year. MD counts residency from the date you get a MD drivers license, so she had to wait until she had her MD license for a year.
This was 8 years ago, so I don’t know if anything has changed.
I can’t speak for the other schools you mentioned but UMD makes it difficult. My H worked 1/2 the year in MD and we owned a home there for years before our D was accepted, but she only would have gotten instate tuition after two year of us moving their permanently.
As already mentioned, the higher ranked schools do not make it easy for people from out of state to become residents for tuition purposes. IMO that’s how it should be since the people who have lived there have paid taxes into the system.
If you can’t afford those schools, look at places where you can get merit awards.
Edited to say that this was more recently than Campbell281’s experience. (5 years ago).
FWIW, I went to UT for law school as an OOS and got in-state tuition as a kind of merit award after my first year based on my grades. But that was in the mid-2000’s. Anyhow, you might see if that’s a possible option for undergrad if you’re confident that you can get the grades.
It’s extremely difficult to change your OOS status at UCs (although California will happily tax you as a resident if you so much as sneeze in its direction).
Almost no states allow this for obvious reasons, but Texas and Utah are notable exceptions. The easiest way to find out is to look on the schools website. The schools that do allow this have a defined path. Most others will list what is required to claim in state residency
There’s no back door into residency, and typically requires parents living in the state and filing state tax returns etc or you to be completely emancipated, with no support from your parents (they can’t give you any money and they cannot claim you as a dependent on their tax return). You would have to support yourself 100 percent entirely on your own. Even then, an emancipated minor will have a hard time proving they are a resident and could be denied.
If you go for law school/grad school the UCs will similarly give you state residency after your first year - if you are an independent student. I moved to California to attend a UC for grad school and qualified for in state tuition after the first year (and this expectation was even outlined in writing in my UC financial aid letter - that I would apply for and get accepted for state residency by year 2).
UT-Austin gives VERY few OOS tuition waivers for merit awards. Like only a handful in the entire engineering school, across all years. I had heard that you could get a waiver with a merit award, which my son got. When I called to check on it, I could tell the woman was trying not to laugh as she explained the reality of the situation. I don’t know if law school is different.
Some states are easier - Utah, Missouri are two that spell it out. Florida has a lot of exceptions (military in some cases, scholarships at FSU, grandparent waivers). Colorado allows either parent to be a resident and doesn’t require that parent to claim the child on taxes; it also makes it fairly easy once the student is 22 years old.