Washington State Residency

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I am a California resident, and a sophomore in high school. My dream school would be University of Washington, but the out-of-state tuition at $19,000 is way out-of-reach. From UW's website, the residency requirements:</p>

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[quote=<a href="http://www.washington.edu/students/reg/residency.html#domicile%5DEstablishing"&gt;http://www.washington.edu/students/reg/residency.html#domicile]
Establishing</a> a bona fide domicile:</p>

<p>To establish domicile in the State of Washington you must provide documentation showing you meet the following guidelines:</p>

<p>1.</p>

<pre><code> Prove conclusively that you have not come to the state primarily for educational purposes. Current guidelines require that a student enrolled for 7 credits or more a quarter must be employed at least 30 hours per week at a non-student job to overcome the presumption of educational purposes.
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<p>2.</p>

<pre><code> Live in the state for 12 consecutive months as a legal resident. A legal resident is an individual who has relinquished all valid legal ties (for example, driver's license, voter registration, et cetera) with their former state of residence and established such ties in Washington in accordance with state and local legislation.
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<p>3.</p>

<pre><code> Establish ties:
1.

    Employment.
 2.

    Driver's license/state ID. If you have a current out-of-state driver's license, you must obtain a Washington State Driver's License# within 30 days of arrival. If you don't have a driver's license from any state you must obtain a Washington State Identification Card.
 3.

    Vehicle registration. If you own or drive a vehicle in Washington, you must register it in Washington#.
 4.

    Voter registration. If you have a current out-of-state voter's registration, you must register to vote in Washington#.
 5.

    Establish a bank account in Washington.
 6.

    Medical/automobile insurance independent of parents.
 7.

    Financially independent for the current and prior calendar years.

Examples of other factors that might help one establish proof of domicile include: disposition of property in the former state of residence, relocation of household members, participation in local community organizations, and generally becoming involved in activities that will help prove their intent to make Washington their official place of residence.

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<p>If I were to move to Seattle after graduating from high school, went to Seattle Central Community College for a year (or two) while working, as well as register to vote in Washington, establish a bank account in Washington, and get a Washington driver's license, do you think that they would accept me as a Washington resident?</p>

<p>Alternatively, if I were to move to Seattle after graduating from high school and just work for a year, do you think that this would qualify me? </p>

<p>What concerns me is "Financially independent for the current and prior calendar years." In order to meet this requirement, would I have to meet FAFSA's ridiculous financial independence requirements, because in that case practically nobody under the age of 24 who isn't married could be considered independent, and there are plenty sub-24 year olds who are single and financially independent. Or by financially independent, would they have their own, more realistic definition? I'm not looking to cheat the system, I intend to live in Washington my whole life.</p>

<p>Any feedback would be very much appreciated.</p>

2

<p>your last paragraph shows that you understand how the system works. As long as you are dependent according to FAFSA, your permanent residence is where your parents are permanent residents. You can't establish a separate residency from them.</p>

<p>"practically nobody under the age of 24 who isn't married could be considered independent" -- that is exactly the case. Independent for college financial aid is a different thing from independent according the the law or the IRS.</p>

<p>When I read the Univ. of Washington website -- it does seem that if you support yourself fully for two years, and during that time not take over 6 credit hours a semester -- and you can prove all that, you can be declared a resident. But -- since you still won't meet the FAFSA requirements for independence, you won't qualify for financial aid without your parents income information and if they do pay for your school, you will lose the Washington residency. I can almost guarantee that it won't work (and will cost you more in the end -- If you work a job to support yourself, that money will be factored into the EFC along with your parents income and assets and will raise your EFC even higher.</p>

3

<p>
[quote]
your last paragraph shows that you understand how the system works. As long as you are dependent according to FAFSA, your permanent residence is where your parents are permanent residents. You can't establish a separate residency from them.</p>

<p>"practically nobody under the age of 24 who isn't married could be considered independent" -- that is exactly the case. Independent for college financial aid is a different thing from independent according the the law or the IRS.</p>

<p>When I read the Univ. of Washington website -- it does seem that if you support yourself fully for two years, and during that time not take over 6 credit hours a semester -- and you can prove all that, you can be declared a resident. But -- since you still won't meet the FAFSA requirements for independence, you won't qualify for financial aid without your parents income information and if they do pay for your school, you will lose the Washington residency. I can almost guarantee that it won't work (and will cost you more in the end -- If you work a job to support yourself, that money will be factored into the EFC along with your parents income and assets and will raise your EFC even higher.

[/quote]
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<p>I see what you're saying. </p>

<p>Since they don't offer the WUE scholarship or any kind of out-of-state scholarship like lots of western universities do, they are placing themselves out of reach for anyone on the west coast (or anywhere in the country out of Washington) who can't afford to spend over $30,000 a year for college, thus elliminating the diversity of out-of-state students to just the rich.</p>

<p>Anybody have any ideas or suggestions? I love the Seattle area and would love to go to school there.</p>

4

<p>It's very hard to gain residency in Washington (especially for school purposes). You need to become financially dependent from your parents. If you really want to go to UW, I'd suggest going to a school in California and then applying as a transfer student after 2 years.</p>

<p>Tuition at Washington actually went up and is now $21,000+ (for OOS) - which is one of the reasons why I didn't apply :)</p>

5

<p>V ince -- you need to understand that it isn't the University of Washington's mission to have diversity in the form of out-of-state students on campus. Their mission is to educate the children of the taxpayers of Washington -- and thus, they funds they have are used specifically for that purpose. Other students are accepted as long as they don't interfere with that mission (OOS high tuition helps the University).</p>

<p>I know it can be frustrating -- and there are many students who would love to attend California Universities with in-state tuition and find the situation just as frustrating.</p>

<p>It isn't just Washington University that has this policy -- most (if not all) state universities (especially the well-known state universities) have high OOS tuition, relatively low amounts of merit aid for OOS students and the number of OOS is also restricted.</p>

6

<p>I have a friend who is also trying to find a way to establish residency in the state of Washington in order to attend WWU for instate tuition. they use the same definition in financial independence as the fafsa and require parent tax return information. If he emancipated himself, would he still have to present that information?</p>

7

<p>You can’t just emancipate yourself.

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<p>What are the special circumstances?</p>