We are from CA, so we are moving home. However, things have changed in the time we have been gone. Residency seems to have a firmer crackdown.
I am looking at the residency form and it states “physical presence” as a criteria for residency. Is this the child’s physical presence or the parent’s physical presence?
Facts:
We are moving back to California
My husband will move in January, 2018
He will be purchasing a house, registering cars and start work in January of 2018
I will wait for graduation for my middle child in June, 2018 and then move.
Unfortunately, the timing couldn’t be helped. It is ok, we will work with it.
Will my son’s 366 days prior to being a resident start when my husband gets there, with a moving van, and gets his DL or does the 366 day clock start after my son (who will be the student) gets there himself?
Thanks.
This isn’t my area of expertise but, I think he’ll have a tough time asserting he was present in CA while submitting transcripts from an OOS HS.
Not many of the CA publics accept freshmen Spring applicants so, you may be out of luck either way
did your son attend a CA high school? If so, for how long?
There are exemptions for some military and gov employees so, maybe that applies.
In which state will he graduate ? If a western state you may be able to use WUE (a consortium of western colleges that offer discounted OOS tuition to fellow western states).Quite a few of the CSUs participate.
Here’s the full list.
http://wue.wiche.edu/search_results.jsp?searchType=all
If he has the stats, your son may qualify for merit aid to a private college like LMU or USD. They are both known to ‘match’ UC tuition for well qualified applicants.
No, he would be attending a CA state college in the Fall, and we would either being paying out of state tuition 1 semester or two.
I am not trying to prove he was in CA an extra 6 months, but under age 19 it says it matters where the parents live, that was my question.
No, he didn’t attend high school in CA. No, East Coast. We came here for DH’s job and are now moving back.
The only difference this may make for us is that he may need to attend a CC first for cost purposes, but if OOS is only a semester, we would be more comfortable spending the money for just one semester.
I can’t pull up his grades at the moment (not at my home computer) but he has around a 4.2 weighted and a 3.8 unweighted. But his ACT scores are not that great…25.
Thanks
Check the UC websites. They spell out how to prove you are a California state resident. i.e. what it takes to validate you are entitled to in state tuitition. If you can’t prove it, you don’t get it.
I have looked at it, there are a few things that aren’t clear, that is why I am asking. And yes, I am well aware if you can’t prove it, you don’t get it…
i would be sure to validate before starting at the CC, once designated OOS, many students find it difficult to to change their status while attending school.
Validate what? Becoming a resident in Jan or in June? He will def. qualify for his 2nd year as the entire family will have been there an entire year, longer than 366 days required.
As i note above, this isn’t my expertise but, I do know this is a nuanced process and a slight mis-step can be costly. Many students find it difficult to change their status from OOS to in state while continuously enrolled at a CC, CSU or UC. I encourage you to validate any assumptions with your son’s target school before taking action.
^^^agree. Try to find out from the target school by talking to someone in Financial Aid Asap. They are happy to talk to prospectives.
Well, the qualifications for him to be a resident as his physical presence are quite clear…there is a form and all of the schools have the same form.
What I am asking is about him being a dependent of someone who has moved there 6 months prior.
Yes, I plan to call, but honestly, I hate it, I feel like I get different answers depending on who I talk to. I was hoping someone here knew and wasn’t speculating as I am at this point.
And as expected, I called 2 schools yesterday and got 2 very different answers. Neither person really seemed to know what they were talking about as they both looked it up as I was on the phone and read me what I had already read and one said it is parent’s physical residence and the other said it would be his.
Yup, that is what I figured would happen. My guess is that we won’t get a clear answer until we petition for residency and see what they say.
We will just plan for having a pay a full year OOS and hope to only have a semester.
But both schools said I was correct, he WOULD be considered a resident after the first year at the latest (Fall semester of 2019) since the entire family was moving out, we would have jobs, car registration, home purchase, etc…within the 366 day requirement.
that is exactly my point. each campus makes an independent residency determination. I’d make an appointment with admissions and financial aid office at his target school, get an answer in person, then follow up in writing so, you have documentation.
your son has pretty strong stats, which schools is he targeting?
I can’t. We are still in North Carolina!
I would love to see him at UC Irvine but the cost is too high for him to go as a non-resident ($40K for just tuition). I also don’t think his stats are strong enough for UCI.
He was thinking:
Reach: UC Irvine and Cal Poly SLO
Match: Cal Poly Pomona, CSFullerton
Safety: Irvine Valley/Saddleback Community College
But honestly, if we have to pay OOS, he may have to just start at CC and reach for the others after the first or second year of CC.
Having him take a gap year may help with CA residency.
thanks. We would rather pay a year of OOS tuition than take a gap year. We just aren’t big believers in gap years. We have seen too many NOT return to school and honestly, he doesn’t want to do that and we don’t want him to.
The question really isn’t, “what else can we do” it is “When would he qualify for residency, in one semester or one year?” He WILL qualify after a year, it is just a matter of how long we will be paying more.
In that case, apply broadly (even to UCs) and wait to see where he is excepted. If the schools have the ultimate say, I would advise checking w/them in person, if possible, before he makes his final decision in the spring. There is not much sense spinning your wheels if it depends where he ultimately attends. Unless of course, he may be eligible for state aid (cal grants). A gap year is fine, but the student should be working and pursuing their academic or other such interests.
You mentioned attending CC instead for one or two years - privates will take you after one year, but any public CA university requires you to be a junior to transfer.
You may not be much interested in the risk of some assumptions about residency that are implicit in your question and comments. But I feel the need to chime in.
We are California residents. I have been researching Oregon residency for my senior D in case she goes to college there. We have been looking at houses and might all move to Oregon the summer after graduation (I grew up there and we have relatives). Turns out that if you start off as an OOS student it is almost impossible to become in state by your student length of residency or by a family move after you start college.
We also researched taking in my OOS nephew for college here in California a couple years ago. It only would have worked if he had come for his senior year of high school and I had become his legal guardian.
California residency rules are strict. It is risky to think your student can ‘convert’ to residency status because your family will have been here long enough at some point after he/she begins college. It will be a process, and the more competitive schools likely will be difficult when you actually try. Phone calls now won’t provide any real assurance (as you noticed).
Best not to assume only 1 or 2 semesters with OSS rates. If you can’t afford OOS tuition for 4 years, and are against any kind of gap year to ensure residency beforehand, there could be stormy skies ahead. (You could do 2 years of CC and then transfer to a UC, which even at OOS rates would be reasonable.)
It also is risky to assume your student will get into a competitive UC as an OOS student even with very good stats (higher standards usually apply and UCs are supposed to cap the % of OOS students starting in 2018-19).
Perhaps once an acceptance comes, you can get assurance in writing from the college that they agree with your particular residency plan. Good luck and be careful!
^ Right. While a student is in a post secondary program, the residency clock is not ticking.
It’s often easier to follow if you start with the UCOP info, not individual schools.
uc-residence-policy.pdf
Parent Moves to California While Student Is a Minor
A minor student whose parent moves to California can derive the parent’s California residence as soon as it is properly established. However, if the student remains outside California after the parent moved and after reaching the age of majority, the student’s activities will be scrutinized to determine whether the student’s actions are consistent with a claim of California residence
after the parent moved (e.g., whether s/he paid resident tuition at an out-of-state institution;
whether s/he paid resident taxes in another state.)