<p>Im from NJ and might want to go to a UC. Is there any way I can pay instate tuition?</p>
<p>This answers your question: <a href=“UC Legal - Office of the General Counsel | UCOP”>UC Legal - Office of the General Counsel | UCOP; . They intentionally make it very very difficult to do what you propose. If it were easy, everyone would do it.</p>
<p>Interested to know why you might think that would be possible/fair to CA residents who have been paying taxes to support UCs for their kids…you could certainly have your family move to CA for a few years and establish residency, vote, pay taxes, etc. and then apply to the UC system a few years down the road…</p>
<p>There’s a surprising amount of misinformation out there about this issue, As the parent of a junior who is considering applying to some UC’s from OOS, I can’t tell you how many people have said to me: “Oh, you just have to pay the OOS tuition for the first year, right? Then you become a resident.” They act like they don’t believe me when I tell them this is false.</p>
<p>@Corinthian - if only it were that easy, right? Maybe it’s wishful thinking…you can live in a dorm for 9 months then go home, be supported by mom and dad, be claimed on a different state’s tax form, vote and get a job elsewhere, and poof! You’re a CA resident!</p>
<p>I just wish we had the upmost quality public schools here in NJ. We have Rutgers but it isn’t the best. UCLA and Cal are in the top 25 and both are very good at engineering. Im sure my parents would gladly pay taxes to have colleges like that around and Rutgers instate is more expensive than UC instate even though they don’t have quality of education. Right now Im looking at paying full price to all the schools Im going to apply next you year and while it probably won’t cripple my family, it wouldn’t be ideal to pay that much. OOS prices are too expensive man.</p>
<p>In addition, I understand that I will paying 4 years of OOS tuition but is it possible for me to like buy an apartment and show I have every intention of staying in California. I guess what I am saying is there any way to establish residency during my freshman or sophomore year of college?</p>
<p>As to the original question, Most schools do offer a few limited scholarships specifically for highly qualified OOS students. They are not very easy to attain but they generally will offset the out of state tuition part. In general, even with those scholarships, you will end up paying more than if you went to an in-state school because if you were qualifed enough to get the scholarship from the OOS school, then chances are your scholarship in-state would be even better.</p>
<p>@ooohcollege: Part of the appeal of OOS students is the higher tuition they have to pay to attend the UC’s. UC’s also do not give much financial aid to OOS students. Why should they when the California taxpayers are funding these schools. There are so many people posting on CC about trying to beat the system. As a California resident with 2 sons that are/and will attend a UC and a Cal State, I do not get a break either. My sons do not qualify for financial aid so we are full pay. If they wanted to attend an OOS university, I would expect to pay the OOS price tag. If you can pay the higher tuition great and apply, the UC’s would love to have the money.</p>
<p>I understand that the appeal of getting full pay student from OOS that have to pay the extra 20-25K on top of the regular COA. I just want to know if there is anyway around it? Im not sure If you guys are paying much more taxes than people than NJ (although yours go to the UCS while ours doesn’t), but taxes are taxes and we are the same country anyway. Paying 26000 a year Instate is a lot different than 52 K out of state (ballpark numbers). You guys say you pay taxes in CA so you deserve the lower tuition but then it is unfair for all the people without kids in the state who are also paying taxes for UC and are not benifiting from it. Im just trying to save some money.</p>
<p>Since we’re on the topic of UC tuition, I was wondering If there’s a way that I would be able to get In-state tuition even though I’m out of state. I lived in California until I was 13 then moved to Wisconsin. I plan on staying in California after graduation also. </p>
<p>Easy way out, just have the student merry a California Resident. Problem solved.</p>
<p>@ooohcollege @nickxx. Read the link in Corinthian’s post above…should be everything you need to know…and tell you that it is just about impossible… I understand the frustration but public schools are supported by each state’s taxpayers- fair or not…</p>
<p>You can get married and/or have children + Get a job in California + work at the job for 366 days. Then you’d qualify for instate tuition.
Otherwise, no, there’s no way around it.
The principle of taxes isn’t to “buy” something you want. you don’t pay just for what’s useful to you, you pay for what is useful to all, knowing that some things you pay for aren’t of use to you but other things others pay for will be useful to you, and this at different moments in your life, because in the end the aggregate numbers benefit all but the very rich who could be entirely self-sufficient with personal roads, chauffeurs, jets, tutors, etc. As a democracy, we chose to move away from this model (of the "rich enclave vs. 90% living on their own without basics) as did all other “advanced democracies” which coincidentally are also the richest countries in the world. Otherwise you can live in a medieval nation state ( or read the Merchant Prince trilogy by Charles Stross :p)
So you pay taxes at two levels, federal and state, not to “buy stuff you want”, but to contribute to the common good as part of a society - and we can only be a society if some things that are collectively important are funded. When you are lucky enough to have enough that you’re asked to pay taxes* you do so as a sign that you belong to one nation. In exchange, you are represented in decision making at different levels of society. You do not pay your representatives directly - that would be graft. Federal taxes pay for things that are relevant to all Americans and keep the social fabric of the US together as a nation. State taxes fund what the people in each state have decided is important to them. As a society, people in California made the choice to have top-notch universities, lots of them, and lots of smaller universities, and to fund them decently (although that last choice has been severely undermined recently => hence the need to admit OOS and international students to replace the lost funding.) New Jersey also has very good universities, by the way. But apparently most New Jersey students dislike them.
If you want to attend a school in sunny weather, you have University of Arizona and ASU Barrett (the Honors College). If you want top public programs outside of New Jersey and don’t want to pay 50-55K a year, there are other solutions: UVA, UAlabama’s Honors college, Virginia Tech. If you can spend 35k you have Penn State Shreyer, UMD College Park, UGA Honors. If you want to be in California, you can apply to Pomona, Pitzer, Occidental, USC.
In short, there are many different ways you can attend a university that isn’t in New Jersey yet not try to find a way around the law.</p>
<p>*Someone once said: there was a time in my life when I didn’t have to pay taxes, and a time when I made it and paid a lot.The life I got since I’ve started paying a lot, I like it much more.
it’s not cool to be so poor you don’t pay federal taxes, even if it “sounds” nice. Because even if you don’t earn much, you still pay various taxes 
at other levels. The idea is that you’re always part of society because you contribute to it even a tiny bit, at the level you can. In Econ 101, you’ll learn about progressivity :p. </p>
<p>Thank you everyone. I just had this thought today and you guys answered it for me. Also thank you to @myos1634 for giving me a lesson on taxes. Although I did not need it, i appreciate that you took your time to write that wall of text. Thanks again.</p>
<p>^ well, I figured it could be helpful even though nobody wants to hear about taxes as part of what binds us as a society. You won’t have to pay taxes for quite a while - hopefully for you, you’ll be paying federal taxes when you graduate from college (and you’ll pay the other ones if you work) and you’ll join the cohort of adults who HATE HATE HATE taxes (filling out the forms, paying them, etc) but your questions were serious, so I figured they deserved a serious answer.</p>
<p>Now, to get back to your issue: the choice isn’t to pay OOS to UC’s or instate rates for NJ publics. If you specify what specifically attracted you to the UCs, adults on this website would likely give you tons of ideas. I listed some, but there must be a lot more. 
</p>
<p>I just liked the UCs because of their premier education. Im going to applying to similar schools (MIT, Ivies, Caltech), and not having to pay full price would be nice. </p>
<p>What would your major be? Since I see MIT and Caltech, I assume something in STEM.
How about Georgia Tech (expensive, but not as expensive as the UCs), Virginia Tech, RPI, NCSU, Bucknell? Penn State and UMD-College Park Engineering and Science are also very good and well-recruited. If you don’t mind the cold, University MN-Twin Cities is highly ranked for some specialties (like ChemE or CS). All are cheaper than the UCs and the education is top-notch.
If you’re competitive for MIT, Ivies, Caltech, Rowan Honors and Engineering would be a super safety, apply as soon as the app goes live and relax. </p>
<p>Don’t belittle Rutgers so much; their Engineering program is very well-respected.</p>
<p>@ooohcollege In a previous post you say you are able to full pay 60k per year for college…that should pretty much handle any school you can get into, including CA publics…why the concern with OOS rates? But, you should double check with your parents about what they are willing (not just able) to pay- there are always disappointed students here every year that are surprised when they expected to be able to attend any school at any cost…</p>
<p>P.S. Any UC would love your stats and $$</p>