My daughter will be in her Junior Year at VCU next year and we would like to apply for in state tuition. My husband and I live in Maryland. We have read the domicile guidelines - how you are supposed to live there one year etc. She has been renting an apartment off campus and has a Virginia driver’s license and she will file her own tax return and we will not declare her as a dependent . However I am somewhat unclear about the timing for the student being able to provide their own support. Does the student have to provide 51% of their support through loans/scholarships etc a year prior to applying or for the year in which they are want to have the instate tuition?
I think you need to read those guidelines again. YOU, the parent, need to establish your domicile in VA for your daughter to be granted instate status as a student, I believe.
Your tax filing status has nothing to do with this.
If what you are saying was true, there would be practically no students paying OOS tuition once they reached their junior year in college, and that is not the case.
And in the very vast majority of cases, students cannot establish residency for instate purposes WHILE they are attending college as OOS students. They must do so at least a year prior to enrolling in college.
Please check your guidelines again.
We know a number of students who attended College in VA, who lived off campus, and had VA driver’s licenses. This did not entitle them to instate tuition status…as their parents resided out of state.
For Virginia, the period is one year prior to the start of enrollment in college.
Here’s the VA state government page with this [stuff](http://www.schev.edu/students/vadomicileguidelines.asp):
In addition, I think it’s important to bring this to [your attention](Legislative Information System):
Has your daughter been attending VCU for the past two years as an out of state student? If that’s the case, it might be hard to prove that she is not in Virginia primarily to attend college. Hopefully that won’t be an obstacle for you but I just wanted to give you a heads up since I know a lot of people get tripped up by that when applying for in-state tuition.
Virginia is one the hardest states in which to claim instate residency for tuition purposes. Ain’t gonna happen.
Yes, you may not want to forgo the tax advantages of claiming your daughter as a dependent if she will not be getting instate tuition. You’d also be giving up the AOTC if you are eligible. She’d really need a significant source of income to have any chance of claiming she supports herself (not scholarships and grants).
All of our college juniors would like to apply for in-state tuition. This is a non-starter.
Are there any parents out there in a similar situation whose children got instate tuition after applying for a change in domicile or did not?
My friends’ daughter went to Tenn. They even bought a condo for her (I think in her name) and never, for 5 years, got instate tuition.
It’s pretty tough to do, unless your daughter takes a year or two off from school and works in Virginia, supports herself, and then returns to school. Some states make it easier (Utah, Missouri) but Virginia doesn’t.
Maryann…not likely you are going to hear about someone successfully doing what you proposed.
I think you will be paying OOS costs.
I was able to get it for another child in South Carolina but they aren’t as strict as Virginia.
DimitiR - I know this is pretty complicated. You are saying that a student would have to be self supporting for one year prior to applying?
The student would need to have had sufficient income to provide her full support. The school says residency MUST be established 12 months prior to enrollment. Your daughter is already enrolled. How will she demonstrate that she is not in the state for educational purposes? That is why she is at VCU.
It’s nice that this happened for you in SC, but SC is not Virginia.
I just don’t think you read that change in domicile information carefully enough…and you made some assumptions that just won’t pan out.
I don’t know about other states, but Virginia is fairly (and in my view, logically) explicit in saying that simply living in VA while attending school doesn’t qualify for in-state tuition. (If it did, everyone would be in-state after their freshman year.)
Pretty much. The specifics of Virginia law is that the circumstances (eg. being self-supporting – but that’s not enough of course) that your daughter will be using to establish domicile must have existed for a period of one year prior to the start of the semester for which you want to start school. So if your daughter wants to receive in-state tuition for the school year beginning September 1 2015, she will have to have done everything that she would need to establish Virginia domicile as of September 1 2014. It’s a pretty hard standard to meet because nothing that your daughter did in order to attend VCU ‘counts’ for this.
Basically, they’re looking for someone who moved to Virginia to live here, not just to attend college. Unless I’m reading your post wrong, it sounds like your daughter moved to Virginia to attend VCU, which is the main problem.
The other “main problem” is you did not establish in state status BEFORE your daughter began attending college in VA. She has been attending college for two years…as an OOS student. It will be a huge up hill and likely unattainable battle to gain a change to instate status.
Agree with the “not going to happen.” I have a friend who attempted this when she was a graduate student at a Virginia school. She was in her late 20s, had been independent from her parents for more than 5 years, had a Virginia drivers license, etc., and was denied residency status.
Va is very tough to change res. Even those who move here for legit FT work have to wait a year to even take a CC class at night.