I have lived in New Hampshire all of my life and recently after I turned 18 and was already qualified for in state tuition my mom moved to maine because she stopped receiving child support for me. I have stayed living and working in NH residing at my boyfriends home. the school is now emailing me telling me I must pay out of state tuition all though I never moved. I wouldn’t even be able to get instate in maine because you must live there for 12 months to get it so does this mean i just can’t get instate tuition at any school?someone please help or give me any advice
Your state of residence for instate tuition purposes is the state in which your parent resides. In your case…you would have had NH instate status…except your mom moved. She is now a resident of Maine. But she hasn’t lived there long enough for you to have instate status.
I’m not sure there is anything you can do about this. Yes…you are a NH resident for things like voting and driver’s license…but NO you are not a resident for instate tuition purposes…because your parent lives in another state.
Some states do require the parent of a dependent student (most under age 24 are dependent) live in the state and as soon as they move out they instate tuition benefit is gone. That seems to be NH rule (although you can try to appeal since YOU never moved to Maine, still vote in NH, still have a NH driver’s license. Same thing, Maine has the right to set its rules, and if they require your mother to live there 12 months, you may have to wait.
Maine does have a program where they allow students to pay their instate rates, so you could pay the NH instate rate.
Not sure this is true. The Maine tuition cost allows students to pay the same cost as instate for their state of residency for tuition purposes. At this point, this student is OOS for tuition purposes in both ME and NH.
BUT it is certainly worth a call to University of Maine to see what your cost to attend that school would be. Trouble is…you don’t have instate status anywhere for tuition purposes right now.
Maybe I’m wrong and you would pay the instate cost of UNH to attend U of Maine. Call and see.
@bma2001 - Was that state aid that your mom was receiving, or was your dad paying it and your mom was only guaranteed it if she stayed in NH? If your dad is in NH, can you have him become your parent for state residency purposes?
my dad lives in MA so I can’t use him as my residency unfortunately:/
I would work on an appeal. Can you clarify the timeline? Are you in college now? Did you have your place at uni before your mum moved?
@Sybylla i move into college in a week and I have pay stubs and proof of myself working in nh 5 days a week 2 and a half hours away from where she lives as well as mail that has been sent to me at my boyfriends adress in nh. I can also prove to them that she stopped receiving child support at the time she moved.
Would your mother consider moving back to NH if your appeal is unsuccessful?
FWIW, we ended up with a similar situation. My H had to make a job change out of state early in our D’s senior year. She spent 17 years in state but because of employment in a different state and where taxes were now filed, she was no longer eligible for in state tuition, and the new state had a 2 year residency requirement.
You can try to appeal…but your parent moved out of state. For undergrad instate tuition status, the state of residence of your parent is considered YOUR residence in the very vast majority of cases.
Even IF UNH granted you instate status for freshman year, it’s highly unlikely they would continue to do so next year…so what would you do then??
If you can’t afford the OOS rate don’t go. I’d withdraw until you’re clear about the costs. If you have to take a gap year you’ll still be considered a freshman and eligible for grants that transfers don’t get.
If you appeal it needs to be on the basis that you applied and were accepted as per you parent’s residence at that time (I assume that is correct, she was in state to that point?) and that you have little control over her moving OOS. There is no point in talking about your residency as it is hers that matters. Really you are just going to have to beg. Certainly in my last state, that worked, it was not that uncommon. You were in high school for all those years instate?
UNHs site "Residency is determined at the time of admission for degree students "
https://www.unh.edu/registrar/residency
Sigh. Yes, you can appeal, but be prepared for a turn down. Until you are 24, colleges consider you a dependent of your parents for any costs, financial aid, and most state public schools piggy back on this , making parental residence key to getting instate tuition and admission rates.
So, yes, in this case, since your parent is no longer a resident of New Hampshire , you are not eligible for instate tuition. As , said, you can appeal the decision; perhaps you were deserted/abandoned by your mother and paid for all of your own expenses, not claimable as a dependent by her, etc etc, maybe , maybe , maybe something can be worked out , but no guarantee.
If Maine state universities have a one year wait for your mother to be a state resident before you get in state tuition , then you have the time to get your applications in to transfer if NH schools are out of range.
Yes, it’s a pain, a disappointment, delay etc etc . It hurts. But these are rules in place for a lot of state schools.
So when you were admitted, does it state you are a resident in the admission letter? It usually is stated somewhere.
When did your mother move to Maine?
she moved in the middle of june
- What college will you be attending?
- When were you admitted?
- Are you a degree student?
If the answers are:
- UNH;
- Before my mother moved to Maine; and
- Yes,
then according to the link provided above by Sybylla, you should be considered a New Hampshire in-state resident for tuition purposes, at least for the upcoming semester. If the correct answers are different than what I have written above, please provide more details so that we can better help you.
yes all of those are correct but even if i get instate for this semester how am i supposed to continue on to the future years
Yep…that was my question upstream. You need to find out if your instate status continues as long as you are enrolled…or will it end next year. And that’s IF they grant you instate status now.
How did the school know that your parent moved to Maine? Did you change your permanent mailing address to Maine? Did you tell them your parent moved to Maine? I’m not saying they shouldn’t know…but I’m curious how they found out.
^Then you might have to transfer to the University of Maine when the residency kicks in.