In the US, you pay much higher tuition fees if you go to a public university out of the home state. The question is, how do the university know if you are not from that state?
Um, they ask you for your address? And mail all correspondence to that address?
Probably backed up by a “it’s a crime to knowingly provide false information on this application” clause.
You have to provide them with your High School transcripts, from which they can deduce your residence. And yes, of course, you could have recently moved into the new state, but there is usually some timeframe requirement also.
You generally have to provide proof of in state residency to get in state tuition.
One way, of course, is the return address on any correspondence. But for high school graduates, the location of their high school indicates their home state. Usually, to establish residency for college purposes for, say, students who have moved to another state to attend, schools request things like utility bills sent to an in-state address, checks with the required state on the address, signed leases, etc. Residents of any state that gives a break to in-staters definitely do not want carpet-baggers stopping in to take funds meant for home boys.
It’s the student’s job to prove residency, not the University. Supporting documentation includes in-state transcripts, ID/Driver’s license, or the location one’s SAT was administered. If the documentation isn’t adequate, the university will ask for more. If it’s not sufficient, they’ll charge out-of-state tuition.
Related: I remember a reference on the old Beverly Hills 90210 show, “I can use Grandma’s address so we don’t have to pay out-of-state tuition.” Would this trick ever work? Maybe only if the university concerned has a generally lax policy?
At the University of California schools there is a form for this. You fill it out when you start school or if you take some time off from school and then restart school.
Using any address of than that of you or your parents is not a good idea, unless someone else is your guardian. By all means use grandma’s address if that is your primary residence.
I’m not sure how particular they get for a child of divorce where the parents live in different states. If you graduate high school in state A, where your mother lives and pays taxes, but want to go to state college in state B, where your father lives and pays taxes, then it seems to me that you should be able to claim in state rates in either state. Anyone with experience in such situations?
I grew up on a border town and there were plenty of students on both sides of the line that wanted to go to college close to home but not necessarily in their own state. There was plenty of fraud and it almost always worked. Strategies included everything from simply getting a P.O. box across the border to using a relative’s address. States may have better tools for catching it these days but there are ways to do it if you try hard enough. Worst case, you can do it the legitimate way and just move to the state after high school but before beginning college. The waiting period for in-state tuition is usually only a year or two tops and you could save more than enough money doing that to make it worthwhile.
It didn’t directly impact me for college and I don’t really know all the details, but a family member once tried to claim residency in a state that he did not then physically live in, claiming that because he was in the military, he could change his legal state of residency at will. I think there was some truth to this, but I’m not sure it was as liberal as he thought it was. The benefit he was claiming wasn’t in-state tuition though.
Notoriously, living in a state temporarily to attend college does not make you a state resident for in-state tuition purposes. For example, if you grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and your parents live there now, and you register at Virginia Tech and get a dorm or local apartment, you don’t automatically become a Virginia resident just by physically laying in a bed in Virginia X days in the year. You have to intend to make Virginia your indefinite home. There may be a process where you can say, “I’m from PA and am attending VA Tech as an out of state student, but I declare to the world today that the Shenandoah Valley is my forever home. I will get a job here after graduation, marry locally <3 and raise a family in these here mountains.” and become a legal Virginia resident paying in state tuition, but I doubt it’s easy and might be practically impossible.
Yep – I was at UVa for grad school, and despite attending there for 6 or 7 years, I paid full tuition every year as going to school in VA is not applicable when claiming state residency. I knew a pair of grad students at the time – he was local, she was out of state; they were even married for a few years and had bought a house, and she still had to pay out of state tuition.
Then when I moved back to Delaware, despite being born there and having a DE address at which I got my correspondence and was staying until I got myself sorted out (a 35 year resident of DE, ie, my parent), I had to pay out of state grad tuition for the year I was there doing an extra certification. I should have waited a year as I got my residency back at that point 
Especially with regard to UC, I instead interpret it as the University not wanting out of state cash cows converting to in-state. And the international students who get gouged, although they can’t convert as easy.
I had to live here for a year first. Then bring in a pile of paperwork: bills from 12 months ago, mortgage, tax return, etc. I also used an “other,” which showed that I was resident during the summer, instead of going back to the parents like most undergrad students.
Generally states have reciprocity agreements with surrounding states where residents of those surrounding states will pay in-state tuition or a reduced tuition (but not in-state tuition).
One of my HS classmates was originaly from California (moved to PA in middle school) and moved back to CA after high school. IIRC he had to take a year off and live in CA before starting college to get in-state tuition.
This is true, for instance, in New England, where you can get discounted tuition at a school in another New England state, as long as the major you’re interested in isn’t available in your home state’s public universities.
You can also negotiate with your college. If the student happens to have the academic credentials many state universities will waive the out of state tuition. Sort of like a scholarship.
When my daughter visited Purdue to check out graduate school they were very blunt. If you enter as a non-resident, you will never get resident tuition. Just getting an apartment, a driver’s license, and registering to vote wouldn’t do it.
My wife applied to two colleges in the same state; one believed she was in-state, the other didn’t. (Had it been otherwise, we maybe never would’ve met.)
Fun example. I quite literally did this. I was from the Midwest and attended Virginia Tech in the late 80s/early 90s. I was able to get in-state tuition after a year by showing that I was a year-round resident, worked full time when classes weren’t in session, and I paid VA income tax. It was easy, something like a 15 minute interview with someone in administration.