Easiest state to gain residency?

D21 and I watched the University of Utah online presentation today, and they said Utah is the second-easiest state to gain residency. Does anyone know the easiest? I’m just curious.

Missouri

In Utah’s case you pay OOS for the first 2 years and IS the next 2

Actually it only takes 1 year (12 months of physical presence including the summer) to qualify for residency in Utah for tuition purposes (although there have been rumors that it might change in the future). And summer courses are always charged at instate rates. The rules are here:

https://admissions.utah.edu/apply/residency/

Re Utah, I really think that this could become a moving target so make sure you keep up to date with any local regents or local political changes with this situation. Covid is going to add an extra set of eyes on all sorts of ways to cut funding.

current page https://admissions.utah.edu/apply/residency/

Utah is in the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) program which offers reciprocal in-state tution (or 50% discounted out of state tution with a bunch of other western states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming). Only the really popular flagships like UW, UO, and the UC schools are excluded. https://financialaid.utah.edu/types-of-aid/scholarships/freshman/western-undergraduate-exchange.php

I’m guessing that the majority of out of state students heading to Utah are going to be coming from other western states so they frankly aren’t really losing much by making residency easy to get. Plus, Utah as a state is very boosterish so they may be seeking more residents.