Inevitably, I end up talking to at least one family a year who believe they are the ones who have figured out how to pay in-state tuition at a school outside of the state they live in. They tell me, “we have grandparents who live in that state,” or, “we own property there,” as though they are the first people with grandparents or property in another state. They are not. Plus, the colleges have significantly more experience in this game anyway.
It’s important to realize that colleges have a financial interest in having you pay out-of-state tuition. It’s a lot more money for them for the exact same product they provide in-state students. In fact, they depend on a certain percentage of out-of-state students attending in order to balance their budget. The bottom line is that, like any business, colleges see a benefit when they charge you more. Thus, if you are going to pay the lower rate, you’re going to have to work for it.
So, what hoops are you going to have to jump through to prove you live in a given state? This can differ a little from one school to another but you’re going to be asked to produce things like driver’s licenses, vehicle registrations, voter ID cards, utility bills, warranty deeds, high school diplomas, proof of homestead exemptions, guardianship documents, tax returns, and others. You are going to have to provide more than one of those on most occasions too and if you suddenly acquired all those just a couple of months before you enrolled in a college, that’s going to raise a red flag that will trigger more intense questioning from the school.
Even if you do own property in another state you probably don’t have your life revolving around that property. I doubt your vehicles are registered there, and you probably don’t vote there, etc. So, it’s going to be hard to prove residency in that state. If Grandma and Grandpa are suddenly listed as the primary caregiver, but the student graduated high school in another state, has an out-of-state license, and/or Mom and Dad are the ones writing tuition checks, you’re going to hit a wall there.
The last strategy I hear a lot is, “We’ll have our child go to the out-of-state school for a year, pay the out-of-state tuition, he or she will get established in the other state during that year, then we’ll be able to pay in-state tuition for the rest of college.” Well, is your child going to be a financial independant after that year? Are they going to be wholly supporting themselves and are you going to quit claiming them on your taxes? Unless your child is going to be able to decisively demonstrate that they are out there on their own and you are ready to forego your child income tax credit, this one probably isn’t going to work either.
This all boils down to the fact that if your child is considering an out-of-state school, you should anticipate paying out-of-state tuition for the duration of their college career. It would be a costly mistake for you to “buy” the out-of-state product with the hopes that at some point you’ll be able to devise some strategy that allows you to pay in-state tuition. That is, in reality, quite unlikely. There are very special circumstances where a student’s residency does legitimately change and the colleges do have hearts. If you find yourself in one of those very special situations, it’s always a good idea to pick up the phone and call a school. Just be ready to defend your argument.
