Rachel Allen
rallen19@uwyo.edu
Getting in-state tuition as a non-Wyoming resident has proven difficult for some students at the University of Wyoming.
“This definitely has caused me grief and aggravation,” Jordyn Janae Hall, the continuing education chairman for Tri-Delta, said.
Hall said she went to great lengths to complete the in-state registration process.
“The first step of the in-state tuition process is filling out about four pages of paperwork answering questions from if you a dependent of your parents, to if you have voter registration in the state,” Hall said. “According to the state I am an in-state resident, because I have my car license in Wyoming, my voter registration is here, as well as living here full time and being an independent from my parents.”
Hall said she thought this would have been enough to qualify her for in-state tuition; however, Hall had a complication with one question.
“The only one I have to answer no to is owning property in the state of Wyoming, which is highly unlikely for someone of my age.”
Hall is 22 years old.
The process gets more complicated from there.
“After answering these questions and providing proof, you write a page essay on why you deserve to have in-state tuition,” she said. “If you are not granted in-state tuition off of the paperwork you can schedule an appeal meeting with a board that decided if you deserve in-state tuition.”
When it comes to the acceptance process, Hall said she has faced exceptional tribulation. “I have gone through the process of paperwork and appeal meetings three times, and all three times I have been denied,” she said.
Hall is not the first to struggle with the financial aid office over this issue.
“To say this process has caused grief and aggravation would be an understatement,” Kaitlyn Suppes, a junior studying business administration, said.
Suppes said she has fought for in-state tuition for half her time at UW.
“I’ve spent almost the last two years working on becoming a resident. In that time, I had to become 100 percent financially independent, which meant I had to have two to three jobs at all times,” she said. “I have had to ask my parents to no longer claim me on their taxes and file my taxes as an independent. I spent countless hours working on the application itself to ensure that I had every detail perfect, every document attached, letters from my employers in the mix and that everything was notarized. Never have I been through such a long, exhausting process.”
The price difference for Wyoming residents and students out of state is notable.
“I pay around $16,000 annually, while in-state tuition for a student is around $5,000 annually,” Hall said. “So I am paying around $11,000 more annually to attend the University of Wyoming.”
Suppes is facing similar numbers.
“On average the cost of my attendance for 15 credit hours would be around $14,310 per year, not including any fees,” she said. “Fees included, would be closer to $15,708.”
However, the difference for out-of-state residents at UW is much better than other universities by comparison. At Utah State University, yearly tuition for Utah residents is approximately $9,826. Tuition for out-of-state students is about $28,8814. The difference is approximately $20,000. By comparison the difference for Wyoming residents and non-residents is half that, at slightly less than $11,000.
