<p>I thought I saw that Grigg had himself reclassified as instate for tuition purposes after one year (and posted he wasn’t sure if it was legal) so I would assume there were large loans in year 1. Some schools are very strict on residency and I had heard that was true of Penn State’s main campus. However, when there’s an exception, it’s generally for students who can prove they are self-supporting and, given his family’s low income, it may have been possible to prove they were not contributing to his living expenses at all. Note that even doing this would not change the fact that he was dependent for financial aid purposes, just for residency tuition. </p>
<p>This was his post:
"got $5,500 in loans from FAFSA and $11,150 in grants/scholarships from Penn State.</p>
<p>Edit: the other responses are on-track. Penn State is really bad with FA, but you should still apply for them. Also, what you can do (what I did) is to live off campus in an apartment (which basically cuts about $10,000 rooming and boarding from tuition, making it WAY cheaper). If you do this, you can get your in-state residency after only a year, and after the first year, you get in-state tuition. And with the grants and scholarship I got from Penn State and other things, it actually makes it quite affordable. Illegal? Not sure. Possible? Yes! I’d definitely talk to the people who work at the office at Penn State because they helped me work out my money problems! My family is poor by the way ($10,000-20,000) "</p>
<p>Nicktumi, every school determines its own residency policy and you can find them online. Usually, this is more possible for lower tier state schools and community colleges-- not flagships or big, competitive schools like the UCals. From his post, it looks like Grigg was not sure if what he did was legal. I would really, really advise you not to go down that road because if the school finds out, you will owe them the $ immediately and would be unable to continue school there or elsewhere (they refuse to release the transcripts of students who owe $) until the whole debt is paid off.</p>
<p>2College…</p>
<p>When he wrote that post, he was an incoming frosh…likely with hopeful ideas. He hadn’t yet had himself re-classified. Who knows if he was able to do that for this coming year (now that he’s been there one year). </p>
<p>He seems rather naive. Again, he wrote that post the summer before starting frosh year. He thinks that by renting an apt off campus that he’s going to save $10k on room and board. Well, I can’t say that I know how much off-campus apts are at PSU, but I doubt that a student would save $10k per year living off campus. Even cheap rent/utilities/food would be at least $600 a month…for 12 months. Unless room and board at PSU is $17k per year (unlikely), he’s not gonna save $10k per year on R&B by living off campus. </p>
<p>Since he hasn’t posted lately, we don’t know if he was able to get himself reclassified as a resident. however, since it doesn’t seem like both of his parents are employed, maybe he was able to pretend that one of his parents is living in that apt???</p>
<p>Ah, that makes sense. Since he wrote in the past tense-- “what I did”-- I thought he had done it. No, I don’t think he could save $10K a year living off-campus. </p>
<p>To the OP, regarding the original question, it is usually harder to go to an oos public because the student is unlikely to get much financial aid based on <em>need</em>. However, if the student is competitive for <em>merit</em> at the oos-- if the oos school is lower tier than the instate or the oos wants the student more (perhaps the oos gives more merit or is actively interested in something the applicant has to offer), it may work out for a poorer student to go oos. My recommendation is to make SURE you have an affordable instate option and not to load your apps with oos publics. But if you have the stats for guaranteed merit at, say, Alabama, then yes, it could work out that it’s a cheaper option than your instate. That said, one of my kids (a musician) got talent money at several oos publics that accepted him but not at our instate. Even though the $ was for music, the simple fact is that kid’s stats were high for the oos schools but our instate was an academic reach so I think you need to realize that they look at the whole package when awarding merit money.</p>