The Broke Student's Guide

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Residency: What It Is and How to Get It

So you’ve found the school of your dreams. It’s got the major you want, the campus is gorgeous, and you’ve just received your acceptance letter! But unfortunately, it’s a public college in a different state than the one you live in. If you don’t want to pay 3x more tuition than you would for an in-state school, here’s how to get in-state tuition rates.

First of all, residency refers to where your university decides you are from. For instance, if your parents or legal guardians live in Iowa, and you’ve lived in Iowa with them your whole life, you are classified as a resident of Iowa. You can only pay in-state tuition if your college decides you are a resident of the state in which your college is located OR if your state has reciprocity with the other state (check out my “State Schools” post for an explanation of reciprocity.) 

A common point of confusion about residency is that moving to the state you’re going to school in does not actually make you a resident. Renting an apartment in the state doesn’t either. Most schools will use your parent’s/guardian’s address, more specifically the state in which your parents are filing their taxes, and state that the only reason you’re in their state is for school. You can’t prove you won’t leave the state immediately after finishing college, and so they don’t want to give you discounted prices.

Now, the easiest way to get in-state tuition in a state you don’t live in is to marry someone who does live in that state. If you’re from Georgia, and trying to go to the University of Nebraska, signing a marriage license with Phil from Omaha is going to establish you as a resident and get you in-state tuition. Why? Your spouse takes precedence over your parents, and so the University can assume that if you married (in this case) a Nebraska resident, you have a greater intent of staying in the state after graduation. HOWEVER. I am not recommending this. If your school finds out you married someone for the sole purpose of lower tuition, this is fraud and it is likely going to end with you paying the full price of tuition. Not to mention, divorce is pretty messy. 

So, moving right along, the option that I recommend for people who really want to go out-of-state but want to pay in-state tuition would be to GAIN residency in another state, generally by living and working there for some minimum amount of time. Most universities will set a minimum hour-per-week working requirement (generally around 30 hours), and require you to work for around a year. You’ll also be required to get a license in your new state, register to vote there, and file your taxes in that state. 

Gaining residency somewhere new does have a few drawbacks. For one, you are going to have to delay beginning school. Working 30 hours a week and going to school-full time is next to impossible, and a lot of schools have restrictions on how many credit hours you can take while going through the residency process. You also MUST file your own taxes, which means your parents cannot claim you as a dependent. That’s a super important conversation to have with them before starting this whole process.

But in the end? The job alone makes you money, and at the end, you’re paying a third of what you thought you’d have to pay to go to college. So I highly recommend gaining residency in your state if you’re a conscious student.

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State Schools

The biggest tip I can offer to save money, and I can’t emphasize this enough, is to attend a public college in the state you’re from. In-state college tuition costs about a third of out-of-state tuition (the difference between $10,000 a year and $30,000 is astronomical, let me tell you), and most states offer far more scholarship opportunities to residents of their state. Their goal is to get smart, hard-working people to stay where they’re at, and you can use that to your advantage. In-state schools are also often easier to get in to than out-of-state schools, so if you’re coming up short on your GPA or test scores, this is also a good plan.

I hear two main complaints about in-state schools. First, maybe you really, REALLY would like to move out of the town you’re in. Your family is driving you crazy, you’re from too small of a town, or too big of a city, and you want to see the world. That makes sense! But in the long run, and if you’re on my page you’re probably thinking into the future, it will be easier to live the life you want if you’re not drowning in debt. You can leave your state now, or you can sacrifice location in order to have the savings to go wherever you want the second your four years end. Additionally, going to a state school does not necessarily mean staying exactly where you grew up. Moving an hour or two away might give you the change of scenery AND keep money in your pocket.

The second reason I hear is that none of the state schools at your disposal have the major/program you want to go into. Every school has a decent biology program; not every school can train you for music production. This is actually a very good reason to look into the residency programs of different schools (I’ve got a whole other post labeled “Residency” that explains what it is and how to get it.) 

Another option is to look for states that have reciprocity with your state. If you’re not familiar with the concept, reciprocity is an agreement between two states that they will offer in-state tuition to non-residents of the other state. For instance, if you happen to be from North Dakota, you can attend any public college in Minnesota and pay in-state tuition rates! Looking in to this can be a great way to leave your state without losing money.

Going to school in your state is by far the simplest and quickest way to guarantee you don’t slip too far into debt, and I highly recommend always looking into your state schools first.

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Intro - Paying for College

Paying for college without a lot of help from your parents or a full-ride scholarship can be an ungodly undertaking. 4 years of of school can cost anywhere from $20,000 to a whopping $326,000...and that’s just tuition. Factor in an apartment, food, health insurance and other essentials, and it’s no wonder that so many college students end up in debt.

That’s where I come in. Hi. I’m a 20 year old college student, and I’m going to graduate college debt-free with no help from my parents. And I’m not on a full ride, either - you don’t need a perfect SAT score to figure out the system and get through college without getting in over your head. So if you’d like all of the tips and tricks on how to save money and end up debt free? You’ve come to the right place.