For instate purposes, you would be considered In state only if one of your parents has resided there and continues to reside there.
(FWIW) Oh, and Californians don’t use the term “Cali”, that’s something someone from OOS invented.
Though there are some exceptions, as everyone is saying, as a dependent undergraduate under age 24, your state residency for in state tuition purposes is going to be linked to where a parent is resident. Prior residency does not help.
You are in state for Maryland, are you not? You have a number of choices there , both public and private. You would be charged in state tuition there for the public schools. When you get your test scores, you might want to discuss with your high school guidance counselors what your best options in state are. I’ve found that the highschool GCs tend to have a good idea how admissions work in their state for their students.
It’s important to have a talk with your parents and get their feeling in all of this, as you will need their support. How much are they willing and able to pay? Get them on line with you with financial info to figure out what your FAFSA EFC is and what the NPC says your family is expected to pay. This all determines what schools you can afford.
FWIW, for a typical CSU such as SDSU or SJSU, the difference in tuition between in-state and OOS is “only” $12K. Roughly around $19K for a year. If you stay with relatives in California and commute to school, $19K doesn’t seem like a whole lot. Even if you go to a dorm, $35-40K isn’t much more than what we in-state residents would pay for a UC such as Berkeley or UCLA with dorm.
Not likely. What makes you think this will be the case?
Get a Fiske Guide to Colleges and look at easier Maryland colleges to get into. Run the NPC (Net Price Calcuclator) on any college you think you can get into. (If your parents are married to each other and don’t own a business.)
I think OP’s referring to his Calif public GPA being a 3.59, but his vanilla unweighted GPA for every other state still be 3.12.
My mom is also a unmarried single mom , but she has 3 masters and is now a us citizen .Would that change anything?
Your mom isn’t applying to college. But the fact of her having 3 masters degrees can mean top adcoms expect more from you than a B average. OP, it’s your own reality, your own record, that makes a college a match or safety. Find colleges where you match what they expect, in all respects.
Is your mom willing to move out to California? FWIW that’s how I met my wife, more or less. One of her friends moved out to California, because her son got into UCLA CS (very easy for nurses to find a job anywhere) and she wanted to save the $25K a year. My (now) wife decided to follow her friend out to California once her (our) daughter finished HS and went away to school.
Yes, this changes your method in approaching where you go to school. If your Mom is an unmarried single Mom, I am assuming her income would not be enough to support you as an OOS student at a public school? The public universities in California do not provide financial aid to non-resident students. None. You need to find an affordable school that would accept you.
Because your GPA is not “stellar”, finding merit aid would be difficult. Your aid would have to be “need-based” and that would involve applying to your instate schools for affordability.
This is an exception for the age 24 rule.
a. student was not claimed as an income tax dependent by any individual for the two tax years immediately preceding the term for which resident classification is requested.
AND
b. student is self-sufficient. Student has supported self with own resources (employment, commercial/institutional loans in student’s name only, financial aid and savings from earnings, all of which require official documentation) for two full years prior to the residence determination date for the term s/he proposes to attend the University.
do you have any schools that would be safety schools for me?
Safety schools first and foremost need to be affordable, so what is your $$$ budget? I would say there are no safety schools in California if you need financial aid.