Maintaining In-State Tuition When Parents Move

Written by Sally Rubenstone | June 29, 2015

Question: My son has lived in Georgia for 16 years and he plans to attend college in state. We are considering to move to another state in his sophomore year in college. Would he be able to keep his GA residency even though his parents move?

Good news! As long as your son remains continuously enrolled in a Georgia public institution, he can maintain his in-state tuition classification status, even if you move away.

However, if he were MY son, I would make sure that his Georgia affiliation is well-documented (e.g., he should continue holding a Georgia driver’s license—if he has one now—and he should register to vote in Georgia). That way, if he does decide to interrupt his education … either intentionally (for instance, for a “Gap Year”) or due to circumstances beyond his control (such as serious illness or family crisis) … he will have established a “paper trail” that shows that he still has Georgia on his mind and not your new place of residency.

Written by

Sally Rubenstone

Sally Rubenstone knows the competitive and often convoluted college admission process inside out: From the first time the topic of college comes up at the dinner table until the last duffel bag is unloaded on a dorm room floor. She is the co-author of Panicked Parents' Guide to College Admissions; The Transfer Student's Guide to Changing Colleges and The International Student's Guide to Going to College in America. Sally has appeared on NBC's Today program and has been quoted in countless publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Weekend, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, People and Seventeen. Sally has viewed the admissions world from many angles: As a Smith College admission counselor for 15 years, an independent college counselor serving students from a wide range of backgrounds and the author of College Confidential's "Ask the Dean" column. She also taught language arts, social studies, study skills and test preparation in 10 schools, including American international schools in London, Paris, Geneva, Athens and Tel Aviv. As senior advisor to College Confidential since 2002, Sally has helped hundreds of students and parents navigate the college admissions maze. In 2008, she co-founded College Karma, a private college consulting firm, with her College Confidential colleague Dave Berry, and she continues to serve as a College Confidential advisor. Sally and her husband, Chris Petrides, became first-time parents in 1997 at the ripe-old age of 45. So Sally was nearly an official senior citizen when her son Jack began the college selection process, and when she was finally able to practice what she had preached for more than three decades.