<p>I'm a current student in UC Berkeley paying the non-resident tuition. I come from a low income family and my parent can't afford that much for my college, so the extra 23000 per year all goes to my loan. I can't imagine how much I owe at the time I graduate.
Ok, you may say that I should stay in state. But that's not my case. My parents and I live in California. I was determined as a non-resident since my father has some foreign income in his tax filing. Damn.
I talked to a school financial adviser, and she told me that I'd already gotten the maximum amount of financial aids and paid almost nothing but only the non-resident tuition. Financial aid gifts CAN'T and will NEVER cover any of that. The only thing I could do is to try some scholarships which may lower my 23000 loans for a couple hundreds(or a thousand, if I'm lucky enough. But that's still nothing compared to 20k.)
Here I need some helpful advice. Any ideas on paying the high tuition except trapping myself deep in debts? I want to at least save that for grad school.</p>
<p>How did you get that large a loan in the first place? Did someone cosign for you? Yes, far too much debt. Even if you tried would the cosigner qualify for more loans in subsequent years?</p>
<p>How long have you and your parents lived in CA? Would you qualify for in-state in future years or at a different U?</p>
<p>3 years. We moved to California in Feb, 2011. </p>
<p>I have no idea how I qualify to get the loan. Anyway a 10k loan shows up in my financial aids package this semester. I’m not sure what would happen for fall since the financial aids package wouldn’t come out until summer. If the amount of my loan declines, then I guess I have no choice but leave the school. I have no way to pay for it without loans. </p>
<p>I guess I would probably stay “non-resident” until I graduate(If I can manage to pay until that time). My father works for a foreign company, and that’s why he has the foreign incomes. The residency office told me that as long as there’s a form 2555 in my father’s tax filing, I would stay non-resident. I’m not familiar with the tax filing process and all those complex forms. What I get from Google is that form 2555 is used for foreign income tax filing. And that’s all I know.
My father will have foreign incomes in the future years, so I guess the same form will appear in his tax filing again and again. If so, then seems like I would be non-resident forever.</p>
<p>Talk to your financial aid director and ask for more assistance, if that does not work out start planning your transfer, and this time apply broadly - Private, Public, Large, Small. 23k/year is just too much loans to take. Yes its UC Berkerly, but its still a large public school, and there has to be a better option for you. If were undertaking a graduate degree it would be a different story, as medical, law, MBA students etc are expected to accumulate quite some loans at the time they graduate, due to cost of those professional degrees.
Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>When you say you are from a low income family, what is the family income? Some posters here on CC feel that $90,000/year makes them low income. </p>
<p>Don’t let yourself be under a mountain of debt when you graduate – it’s just not worth it! Look to transfer ASAP…</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice. I don’t think transfer works for me since I’m a transfer from community college. This is my junior year, and I don’t think I can transfer as a senior. I don’t want to end up my two years in Berkeley with 40k debt. All I’ve saved by going to a community college in the first 2 years would gone.</p>
<p>At the time I accepted Berkeley’s offer, the cost is quite affordable. Actually it is the cheapest one of all my offers. But after I summit my parents’ tax filing, the unexpected extra tuition pops up. I’ve never thought of being a non-resident. Well, if my residency is not California, then where should I belong to? I understand it is the policy there, but it seems kind of making no sense for me.</p>
<p>Anyway I’ve already trapped in this situation. One solution I come up with is that maybe I can leave school for a while and then go back after I turn 24. I guess I would be determined as independent at that time and get rid of my parents’ tax filing. I’m not sure whether this really works. I need to check with my school though.</p>
<p>As for the family income, somewhere between 30k-40k a year, with a household of 5. I can’t remember the limit line for defining as low income, but I think in my case that it is.</p>
<p>Look into transferring to another UC. My understanding is that each school does its own residency determinations, so it’s possible the residency officer at UC Davis, for example, might reach a different conclusion than the residency officer at UCB. It’s worth a try - contact the residency officers at each of the UC’s and see what they say. If nothing else, it gives you an outside opinion - maybe they’ll tell you that the UCB residency officer made a mistake. Maybe not, but it’s certainly worth asking.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Does your mom work? What is her tax form? </p>
<p>This just doesn’t make sense. Do your parents file US taxes? do they both live in Calif? </p>
<p>Did you graduate from a California high school?</p>
<p>My mom works. She files both US and CA state taxes. For my dad I know his name appears in all the tax forms along with my mom’s(they file married jointly), so I think he files both too. (I’m confused about all those tax forms and what they really mean)</p>
<p>My mom lives in California. My dad is hard to say, I mean, he’s back and forth between places since he works for a foreign company. He’s not always “physically” in California. But his driver license’s here, his mails go here, his bank account’s here. I don’t know how to define this situation.</p>
<p>No I moved to California after high school. I know there’s a program(called DREAM ACT I think?) that can waive the non-resident tuition for low incomes, but you have to graduate from a California high school. I don’t qualify for that. They waive tuition even for illegal residents, but I’m legally here and have to pay. </p>
<p>I think the first thing you should do is find out precisely what is preventing you from getting non resident status for tuition purposes. If there is any way around this as you only need one parent to qualify, that would solve the problem. But if your parents have some how managed to declare them selves as non residents and avoid that hefty CA income tax, well then… what can anyone say? They don’t want to pay the taxes in the state and have declared another residence as such, they may well not be entitled for their kids to get CA tuition as they are NOT state residents. Can’t have it both ways in many such cases. YOu can check other CA schools to see if they look at it the same way.</p>
<p>I have friends who were all gung ho in declaring themselves FL residents to get the tax advantages after retirement; bought a place down there , got the paperwork done and are licking their chops about the savings in income tax this year . Well, they have a kid in college, a state college, and it has just occurred to them, that they may lose that status and, in fact, according to the posted residency rules, so they should. You don’t pay tax in that state, and your kid is in State U there, you pay OOS . Maybe they won’t get caught, but according to the rules, when they declared OOS status, that’s it for the in state rates. Some colleges will have exceptions if the kid graduated from high school or has had so many semesters as a resident, but not this particular state u. What they will do, who knows, but they lost qualification by the written rules. </p>
<p>But you need to know what the story is exactly here. My guess is that your parents have figured out a way not to pay the high CA income taxes. And Berkeley and possibly other state schools are saying that if they don’t pay, they don’t get the in state break. They can use those income tax savings to pay the OOS differential. </p>
<p>This is just a guess, but I have seen this a lot. A loophole in one area means you get nailed in another.</p>
<p>If you enrolled in college as a non-resident, you would have to petition to have your residency changed. At some schools, your residency as an incoming freshman is what remains your residency status until you graduate. Perhaps this is what you are dealing with.</p>
<p>I believe that what is happening is that the Father is filing a Form 2555 which is foreign earned income. So he’s telling the U.S. that he is a non resident for income tax purposes so that he doesn’t have to pay U.S. tax on his foreign earned income. Meanwhile, he’d like to be a U.S. resident so that his son can be a resident of the State of CA and pay instate tuition. I guess you can’t have it both ways. </p>
<p>It’s crazy but if your parents separated, this whole issue would likely disappear. </p>
<p>Thanks all you guys. I think I finally understand what pushed me to this position. So the filing of form2555 means that part of income is not taxed, then as a result my father’s not resident and neither I.</p>
<p>I just talked to my parents. It seems like they don’t really understand what’s going on with all those forms in their tax filing. They go to a tax adviser and he figures everything out and my parents just mail the check to tax office. Damn.</p>
<p><a href=“About Form 2555, Foreign Earned Income | Internal Revenue Service”>http://www.irs.gov/uac/Form-2555,-Foreign-Earned-Income</a> is the tax form involved.</p>
<p>Basically, your father is claiming that his “tax home” is in a foreign country for the income in question. The residency implications follow.</p>
<p>What your father needs to do is read the IRS Form 2555 and its instructions and check if the filled out one in his tax return accurately matches his situation. This may require him to ask his tax preparer for more explanation. Also, in general, someone who uses outside tax preparation services should have the preparer explain any parts of the tax return that s/he does not understand. Tax preparers sometimes do make mistakes, sometimes due to incomplete information from the customer.</p>
<p>If your mother pays Ca taxes, perhaps this can be reconciled. If not, under current filing situation, your parents can refile their 2013 taxes married with separate returns with your mother being a CA resident if that would help the situation. It may mean some more taxes, maybe not, but what extra that might mean could be less than OOS UC tuition. Before doing any of this, you need a nice long talk with a fin aid officer, someone up there in the office with the power to make professional judgement and who understands these things. Find out what can resolve this situation. Maybe there are other issues involved. But find out what can be done here. It is definitely possible for one parent to be a resident and not the other, and all you need is one. Find out what the simplest and most cost effective thing is for you to do. </p>
<p>The students residency issue isn’t decided by the financial aid office.</p>
<p>The student needs to discuss this with whomever makes residency decisions. He is residing with his mom in CA. He says she is working in CA. </p>
<p>Is the mom a U.S citizen? Is the student? </p>
<p>The issue could easily be one of the school not believing that the family has set up a domicile IN California, which is a requirement for instate tuition status. </p>
<p>If the mom and student only moved here, but not the dad, it could very well look like they did so solely for the instate residency status. The information I have read makes it clear that CA is looking for evidence that the family intends to make the state their home, not JUST get instate status, and leave.</p>