<p>OP says:</p>
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<p>The only way to get in-state tuition at another state’s public colleges is to MOVE to the state and establish your ** legal domicile** there <em>before</em> you apply (as a transfer student) to your public college of choice. Many state government web pages will have descriptions of what it takes to establish domicile in the state.</p>
<p>To establish your domicile in the new state, you typically need to do all of the following:</p>
<p>1) Live in the new state for at least 12 months WITHOUT taking any college classes, including community college classes.</p>
<p>2) Get a full-time job in the new state and pay local and state taxes. The job doesn’t have to be a great one, but it MUST provide you with enough income for you to support yourself!</p>
<p>3) Fully support yourself for the year you are working and not going to school: You must be able to file both state and federal tax returns as your own dependent and you must not be listed as a dependent on your parents’ tax returns.</p>
<p>4) Physically stay in the NEW state except for (very) brief trips. In other words, you’ll need to not go home for stays of a month or two at Christmas and in the summer time. Some states are more restrictive of this than others, so check the web pages. My D successfully established her domicile in MI after dropping out of college. When she later decided to return to college, she was classified as an in-state student there, but if I recall correctly, one of the guidelines her MI public school used for determining domicile in MI was whether a person spends more than a week or so out of state at a given time. </p>
<p>5) Transfer your driver’s license to the new state. If you own a car, transfer your car registration to the new state. Buy car insurance in the NEW state. This also means NOT driving a car owned by your parents with OOS plates.</p>
<p>6) Register to vote in the new state.</p>
<p>The twelve month waiting period, the job, the filing taxes as your own dependent, being physically present in the state except for short periods of time, and transferring your driver’s license, car registration, and voter registration are all indications that you moved to the state for the purpose of establishing domicile, not just going to college. The fact that you’ll be 24 (and can file the FAFSA as an independent student) when you apply for admission to the college will help IF AND ONLY IF you’ve already established domicile in the new state.</p>