We can’t be the first family facing this, so I thought I’d throw it out of the group here. My husband, daughter and I have lived in California for 10 years. It’s been our plan to move back to the east coast for the last several years, we’re just waiting for D to graduate high school. She wants to attend college in CA and has applied to several CSUs and UCs.
She is applying for the Fall 2018 term and will turn 19 in November of next year. We don’t plan to move OOS until 2019 so her residency will be established for the first year of school. Going forward however, I’m worried about her residency changing to OOS for tuition purposes.
She has a CA driver’s license will register to vote and will get a part time job. My concern is that her only CA address once we leave will be either her school address or a PO Box. I have read the school residency rules and have sent emails to a few of them (waiting on a reply from most) to confirm that this can be done. However, I’m curious to hear from other families that have been through this, and how tough/easy it was to keep the in-state residency going. She has no intention of leaving CA except to visit us in the summer.
It seems to be very difficult to find the answer to this exact question in UC and CSU residency documentation. Most of it implies that residency is checked when a new or returning student enrolls for the first time, or wants to reclassify from non-resident to resident, but does not specifically state any procedure relating to resident parents of a dependent student leaving California. http://www.ucop.edu/general-counsel/_files/ed-affairs/uc-residence-policy.pdf http://www.calstate.edu/sas/residency/
I was under the impression that because your daughter has attended school in California, (and will graduate with a HS diploma in California), that she is considered a resident student, even if you move out of state after she graduates.
Contact your nearest UC and the residency determination office. They will let you know what documentation, if any, will be needed.
Thanks @ucbalumnus and @“aunt bea”. She did attend all of her high school years in California, so hopefully that will be all that’s needed to maintain the in-state status. I have emails out to a few schools. UCSC did reply to say that as long as she stays in California, keeps her CA driver’s license and voter registration here and doesn’t establish residency elsewhere, she will be in-state. Not sure if the CSUs will be the same or not. Hopefully it will be as easy as it sounds!
@bacmom, we have exactly the same question and an almost identical situation (12 years in California), although we plan to move out of California this fall once she’s off to college, whether she stays here or goes somewhere out of state. I’ve read the verbiage multiple times and it’s not at all clear to me. UCLA is one of her top choices–we’re just waiting to see where she gets in and what her options are before we try to figure this out.
I too would love to hear from families who have done with this.
@ttdd16 I think it may end up being easier than I’d thought. CSULB just replied to me with this:
“If a student is eligible for California residency when he or she enters the university, we do not review that student’s residency again, unless he or she breaks enrollment and must re-apply to the university.”
I am not sure if all of the CSUs are the same - still waiting for SDSU to reply. I really thought it was going to be a more difficult situation than this! Now she just needs to be accepted to one or more of these schools
SDSU admits kids from the local HS’s first, so it will be a tough admit, but if you have been living in the SD area, and her stats are good, she’ll probably will enter as a resident student.
We are in the bay area, so not local. Her EI is 4266, which I think should be competitive. If not, we have other options, but my fingers are crossed as I think San Diego would be a great location for her.
Note that if it comes down to AB540 status (i.e. 3 years attendance at and graduation from a California high school), it is not technically California residency. However, non-residents with AB540 status are eligible for in-state tuition and state financial aid, unlike other non-residents. http://www.ab540.com/Paying-for-College.html (includes a lot of references to DREAMer/DACA people who may be eligible, but you can ignore the DREAMer/DACA-specific stuff if she has US citizenship or permanent residency)
However, if the residency classification is done only at initial entrance while you are still California residents, then it may not need to come down to AB540 status, unless she transfers to a different school (e.g. the common transfer paths CC->UC or CC->CSU) after you leave California.
@bacmom, We’re in the same situation as you. My son will graduate in June from a California high school and is planning on attending Cal Poly. My job will be transferring me to N.H. in July, Cal Poly starts in September. Did you get the same reply from SDSU that you received from CSULB?
Thank you!
If you are not applying for financial aid and your daughter uses her California school address as her permanent mailing address, there would be no way for the university to know. The only other indicator would be if you wrote a check for tuition and your new out of state address was on the check; you could avoid that by having your daughter write the check for tuition.
@cali05 How exciting. I’m from NH originally…and I’m heading to Boston once my daughter is off to school!
SDSU refused to answer the question until she was a fully enrolled student. I did, however, email CalPoly early in the application process. Here is their reply:
“If your daughter enters Cal Poly SLO as a resident of California and at some point you decide move out of the state, her residency would not be impacted by your actions as long as your daughter remains in California for the entire time that she is attending Cal Poly.”
I think you, and we, will be okay. My daughter is going to Cal State Long Beach and they’ve said that if she enters the school as a resident they don’t check again.
Great news. Thank you so much.
I grew up outside of Boston and we’re now looking at homes in Exeter.
Good luck with your move and best of luck to your daughter.
