California residency for college?
I was born in California, and have lived in Los Angeles, CA for about 13 years, until my parents and I relocated to North Carolina when I was in 8th grade. I'm about to graduate from high school and I cannot live in NC for another minute. I want to go back to California where I call home for college. The problem is the high "out of state" tuition costs.
My parents own two properties in California. One that we are currently renting to tenants, and another one near Palm Springs.
Would I be considered a resident somehow if we own property in CA, and I was born/raised there practically my whole life?
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
You might be able to get away with that if your parents are paying taxes in California. Call the school of your choice and speak with an admissions official and ask if you are eligible for in-state tuition. I cannot tell you for sure if you will be accepted, but it is worth a try. Good luck I hope it all works out!
Chances are extremely high that you would be considered a non-resident for tuition purposes at most CA public colleges. Not only do your parents need to have a CA residency (which they don't), but you do too, and you don't. If it were as easy as owning or renting property, people would buy/rent someplace super cheap and save that $23,000 non-resident fee X 4. Your parents don't pay income tax here, which helps support the colleges, and they are in a bad way financially right now. They're admitting more non-residents for that extra $23,000 a year. The colleges check into residency very carefully and they are very serious about it. UCLA is the best website for UC info, check CalState website for info on their colleges.
For UCLA I'm about 99.9999% sure, and about 99.9998% for Cal State you would be a non-resident. And you would be a non-resident for all 4 years at a UC (maybe at Cal State) unless your parents move here, and in that case, if they moved here with you, it would take about a year from that point to become a resident. (It is almost impossible for the typical student to become a resident in the 4 years at UCLA and other UCs, see info on their website.) UCLA would cost you about the same as private colleges like USC, Pepperdine or Occidental, so you might as well attend one of them instead, unless you're in love with UCLA and would be OK with taking 5 years to graduate instead of 4 years. (CA economy problems, classes canceled, cut, etc.)
It's really not worth moving out here for most UC's (maybe Berkeley, UCLA or Irvine) or the Cal States. It's worth looking into to see if there is some way you'd be considered a resident, but don't get your hopes up, I'm really sure your a non-resident (and family works for 2 of the UCs in admissions).
Good luck!