The board governing the University of California voted Thursday to allow more out-of-state UC students to qualify for in-state status.
The UC Board of Regents approved recommendations from the UC Office of the President to loosen student financial aid eligibility and qualifications for in-state residency, after the Academic and Student Affairs committee voted unanimously Wednesday to support the changes.
Undergraduate students under 24 who can show they are self-sufficient for one year will be able to determine their financial aid eligibility and residency status without consideration of their parents’ finances and residency status, which aligns with federal and state policy. Graduate students’ residency will also be determined without considering their parents’ residency.
The changes:
a. Undergraduates under age or 24 need one year instead of two years of self-sufficiency to be considered independent.
b. Graduates do not need to consider parental residency (previously this was only if the parents did not claim them as dependent for income taxes).
a. is a big deal, and puts CA more in line with most other states.
I never thought about this before, but a wealthy parent can easily make their child self sufficient for one year.
In many cases, the child will already have assets that have been transferred over a number of years to comply with annual gift restrictions. Children with $100k+ of assets in their name are not unheard of, and once residency has been achieved, tuition plummets.
That is true, but if a family is that wealthy, they may just pay for their child to go at OOS rates rather than have them interrupt their education to establish residency. I think this will benefit middle class families more, the kind like mine that can’t afford OOS tuition. For instance, I have family in California. If one of my kids wanted to go to school there, I could consider letting them live with family for one year while working to establish residency, but I would never have let them do it for two years for fear that they would not go back to school.
I missed the part where they have to interrupt their education.
Wouldn’t they? or they would have to pay OOS rates for the first year. I was basing my comment on my family’s reality, which is that I couldn’t afford OOS tuition for one year while they establish residency, hence, my child (and perhaps others) would have to interrupt their education for one year. If a family could afford the first year at the OOS tuition, that might not apply, but I think it’s a reality for at least some people.
I was thinking the child would pay OOS for the first year from the $100k+ of assets in the child’s name.
I think in order to earn the kind of income that allows you to be living independently in California (high rent cost), you would not be able to go to school at the same time (that would also cost extra money, which nobody can help you with).
And once you are eligible to pay instate rates, you would still need to earn enough for tuition, rent and food, since you probably need to stay independent to be able to qualify for future years.
These students probably won’t quality for federal financial aid (Pell) because of the higher income needed to support themselves.
While I was thinking of the kid who didn’t have that type of financial assets but wanted to go to school in Cali. I think that in your example, @hebegebe , there wouldn’t be a need to interrupt the education, while in my scenario, there probably would.
https://www.ucop.edu/general-counsel/_files/ed-affairs/uc-residence-policy.pdf page 13 says the financial self sufficiency through the student’s own resources (e.g. work earnings) needs to be documented. It is unlikely that previously parentally gifted assets will be accepted if that appears to be the case.
In practice, this is much ado about nothing. It will impact very few undergrads. Graduate students, OTOH…as well as University departments (it lowers the cost of funding a PhD program since the tuition waiver decreases.)
And it doesn’t change Pell requirements since the federal ‘independent’ age is going to remain 24, even if the student is self supporting…
I think this really helps those who are 21-22, really do support themselves, and just need that lower tuition to make college possible. Most will probably be part time students/full time workers.
@mommdc Not everywhere in CA is high rent cost. Have you ever been to Barstow?
I was going by what others mention about high cost of living in CA. No, I haven’t been to Barstow, are there any UCs nearby?
My son began a phd program at UCSF last August and his department had all the out-of-state students, my son included, change their state residencies on their driver’s license immediately. I think they had a few weeks once school started to get it done. Not sure if the dept still had to pay OOS tuition on his behalf this past academic year, or if it takes a year past getting his license changed to be officially considered Californian. The difference in cost to the department is huge, as all stem phd students are fully supported by their dept. and around half his cohort is from OOS.
The way UC accounts for funded students*, yes, the Dept has to pay for his OOS tuition in Year 1. They don’t want to pay it for Years 2+, so they “encourage” everyone to change to California residency immediately, as it takes a year to gain in-state tuition rates.
UC even charges the athletic department for OOS fees of non-Cal scholarship recruits.
Well, at least in his case his OOS tuition was partially defrayed for his dept bc he won a NSF grant. It also paid just about his entire stipend ($2000 short, I think). But when they accepted him, he still hadn’t heard from the NSF, so they took him on, as they did his entire cohort, thinking they were going to have to support his tuition and stipend.
@techmom, If your child lives with relatives, your child will not be considered self-sufficient.
I think that change it will only benefit those families who can pay full freight.
They will not have to pay the OOS fees (and 23K is nothing to sneeze at)
.
Low income/perhaps some middle income students still have no/little chance of attending due to affordability-
Paying in-state tuition will not make the student eligible for in-state aid.
If the student should earn enough money to be self sufficient, they most likely will not receive PELL and the OOS parents will still not be eligible for CA state aid.