California residency for tuition

 

   After hours of waiting in the car for someone I did a lot of thinking about the blog I wrote and just the meaning behind it. I went in circles took my mind all the way to when I moved here last summer. And yet it did not make sense to me how the heck am I not a resident if I have been here a year exact already?! There has to be a way around it! So I decides to call the school and talk to someone about my situation. I called about three times because no one would pick up. Well. I called until I got a hold of someone. Took a couple "can you hold please?," but all it took was the right person to talk to. The lady was really no e surprisingly; maybe because it was early and her day was barely starting. Anyway she gave me some pointers and I put then to work. 

    After a lot of homework I had to do after the disappointment of knowing how much more money I had to pay. I did not want to dip into my saving for just tuition money I did not know if I was going to be able to be reimbursed. Therefore I went to the college and spoke again to admissions about residency and pretended I didn't know what I needed. So the guy there gave me a list of things they ask for; I will post of the official paper later.  

    First you need only one set of proof of physical address. For example only: bank statements, pay-stubs, lease agreement, or utility bill. Only one of these that shows your name and a California address. I on the other hand only had bank statements thankfully and went through a hassle to get them from last year exact July 2012 but go a hold of them.

    Second you need two set of proof that you claimed residency in the state of California. For example: driver's license, state ID, registered to vote, vehicle  registration, CA state tax form (530NR) exact which claims you as partial resident for previous year. I was only able to show the state taxes and state ID that was issues February 2013 exact. The taxes by the way have to be paid by you I did mine through turbo tax because that's where I have been doing mine. Other sources charge you the same amount though, I checked on the government sites that redirects you to a couple other ones but none are free. They are all about $29.99 which is not bad if you're trying to save $1,000.00.  

    Anyway, I am really relived I didn't have to pay that anymore and also I won't have to worry about this section next year. I am so thrilled I didn't have to wait until next summer to start because that was going to be an entire year of waiting and I've already waited too long. This is happy Julie right now and hope this blog is able to help some people out there with the same problem. 

Leave comments if you have any questions I may answer or just opinions:) thanks for reading ! 

I just registered for the first time in the state of California !! Yayy how exciting right?! Who knew "I" would be able to go to school here in this marvelous state! I start school August something I believe of this year. Guess how much I'm paying for just two classes? $1,000 and some dollars and that is not including books, parking fee, health fee, or all the fun stuff like gas and lunch. -_- GREAT! The good thing is that I did qualify for financial aid. I will see how much they are willing to pay for my tuition on Monday with the "proof of purchase" lol.

    You're probably thinking why the heck am I being charged so much right? I forgot to mention a slight detail that I am not a CA resident according to the school.The sucky part is that technically I have been physically here for an entire year (12 months) this year! But little did I know was that once you move to this state you must get a state ID, driver's license, register to vote, or transfer your vehicle's registration. Anyway once I found out it was February of 2013 and got a state ID. Not a driver's license because I thought I would have to change my plates and pay registration fee when mine have not even expired yet; that would have been a whole lot of money!
   My boyfriend on the other hand has to pay about $300 for the same amount of credits/units, actually one more than I.  Life in unfair I know but come on! Oh also I year ago as I was only brainstorming ideas about how I would transfer from AZ to here I came up to the conclusion that tuition is cheaper for out of state people that want to go to school in AZ. For example if you wanted to go to Arizona Western College from another state your nonresident tuition would be only 10 dollars more than normal residents hence $84 per credit; normal residents pay $74.
http://www.azwestern.edu/business_and_administrative/business_office/tuition_schedule.html

   As I double checked my resource, I saw that the website now says "ARIZONA AND CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS." Meaning the lucky bastards that want to go to school from Ca to AZ get to pay the same? Are you kidding me? And why isn't it the same vise verse? Also tuition in California is way cheaper than Arizona; does not make sense. It shows as of today tuition is $46 a unit/credit and for out of state (me) $190.00.  That is ridiculous does not make sense and I'm just hoping financial aid helps me pay most of it. I do not want to be stuck another year until next summer to go back to school, I'll end up finishing my associates degree when I'm 30 :'(
http://www.swccd.edu/index.aspx?page=409
   Well guys if you're deciding to move and go to school here in the near future make sure you prepare and prepare to prepare yourself to become a resident before you even move. Get something with the state an ID or something before you even move or move once its been a year and make sure its when a semester starts. A physical address or a bill won't be enough; sad to say. Well, we live and learn right?