Do Tennessee Residents Get In-State Tuition in Arkansas? (Community College, 2026)
No — Tennessee residents pay full non-resident community college tuition in Arkansas, about $5,600 a year at Arkansas two-year colleges against $3,900 for residents. There is no exchange program between Tennessee and Arkansas; the only route to the in-state rate is establishing Arkansas residency, which takes 6 months.
- You would pay
- $5,600/yr
- Resident pays
- $3,900/yr
- Over 2 yrs
- No saving available
Tuition and mandatory fees only, compiled from published rates and rounded. Excludes housing, books and course differentials. Eligibility is decided by the institution, not by this page.
Open this pair in the checker to switch level, compare other states, or copy a link to the result.
This is the common case, and the honest answer is no. Arkansas charges Tennessee residents its full non-resident community college rate of $5,600, and no regional program bridges the two states.
The comparison that matters is with home: Tennessee Board of Regents community colleges charges a Tennessee resident $4,700 a year. One other state offers Tennessee residents a reduced community college rate, the lowest being Kentucky at about $4,700.
The discount most often missed here is institutional. Individual public universities run their own non-resident scholarships, and several effectively convert a strong out-of-state applicant to something near the in-state rate. Those sit outside every state agreement and are invisible on comparison sites.
Every route from Tennessee to Arkansas
No exchange program or bilateral agreement connects these two states at community college level, so the route table is empty.
Where Tennessee residents pay less
Staying home, a Tennessee resident pays $4,700 a year for in-state community college tuition at Tennessee Board of Regents community colleges. The cheapest Arkansas option for you is $5,600 at Arkansas two-year colleges, which is $900 a year more than staying home, or $1,800 over 2 years.
Tennessee belongs to none of the four regional tuition compacts at community college level, but one state offers Tennessee residents a reduced rate through a state or campus agreement. It does take part in Academic Common Market at undergraduate and graduate level.
| State | Route | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Tennessee to Kentucky | Kentucky Regional Reciprocity Agreements · Kentucky Community and Technical College System | $4,700 |
Tennessee's neighboring states, compared
What a Tennessee resident pays for community college tuition in each state that borders Tennessee, cheapest first:
- Kentucky$4,700/yr · Kentucky Regional Reciprocity Agreements
- Arkansas$5,600/yr · non-resident
- Mississippi$6,900/yr · non-resident
- Missouri$7,300/yr · non-resident
- Alabama$9,500/yr · non-resident
- North Carolina$10,100/yr · non-resident
- Georgia$12,700/yr · non-resident
- Virginia$13,000/yr · non-resident
Compare all 50 states from Tennessee in the checker. Each figure is one reference campus per state, not a state average.
Arkansas residency, in brief
Arkansas grants in-state tuition after 6 months of domicile before the term begins (Ark. Code Ann. § 6-60-204), and a financially dependent student takes the parents' domicile. Moving to Arkansas to enroll does not by itself start the clock.
Arkansas residency requirements in full · how long every state requires
Step by step
- Budget for the non-resident rate at Arkansas two-year colleges: $5,600 a year against $3,900 for residents.
- Check whether the specific campus you want offers its own non-resident scholarship or a border-county waiver — those are institutional, sit outside the state agreements, and are the most commonly missed discount.
- If you plan to stay, price the residency route: Arkansas requires 6 months of domicile, and a financially dependent student takes the parents' domicile, so the family would need to move.
- Read the Arkansas Division of Higher Education rules in full before you enroll — classification is decided once, and re-classification later in a degree is the hardest version of this problem.
Official links
Related
Asked and answered
›Do Tennessee residents get in-state tuition in Arkansas?
No. Tennessee residents pay the full non-resident rate of $5,600 at Arkansas two-year colleges. The only route to the $3,900 in-state rate is establishing Arkansas residency.
›How long does it take to get in-state tuition in Arkansas?
Arkansas requires 6 months of domicile before the term begins (Ark. Code Ann. § 6-60-204), and a financially dependent student takes the parents' domicile.
›How much would community college study in Arkansas actually cost a Tennessee resident?
About $5,600 a year in tuition and mandatory fees at Arkansas two-year colleges, against $3,900 for an Arkansas resident. Figures are compiled 2025–26 published rates and exclude housing, books and course-specific differentials.
›Where can Tennessee residents get reduced community college tuition?
In 1 states at community college level. Outside Arkansas, the lowest are Kentucky ($4,700). Each figure is one reference campus, and awards are made campus by campus.
›Is studying in Arkansas cheaper than staying in Tennessee?
No. Tennessee's in-state community college rate is $4,700 a year at Tennessee Board of Regents community colleges, and the cheapest Arkansas option for a Tennessee resident is $5,600, so Arkansas costs about $900 more a year, or $1,800 over 2 years, in tuition and fees alone.
Sources
Every eligibility rule on this page is checked against the operating compact commission or the state's own residency authority. Last verified 2026-08-07.
Tuition figures on this page are compiled 2025–26 published rates (basis: published compiled), rounded to the nearest $100 and refreshed each June. Eligibility rules are checked against the cited compact commission or residency authority.
- Arkansas Division of Higher Education — residency for tuition purposes ↗Accessed 2026-08-07
- Tennessee Board of Regents community colleges — tuition and fees ↗Accessed 2026-08-07
How this page was made
Compiled and checked by Billy Reiner, editor of In-State Check. Last verified 2026-08-07.
- Compiled from published rate pages
- The in-state and non-resident figures are tuition and mandatory fees for one full-time year, read from Arkansas two-year colleges’s own 2025–26 rate page and rounded to the nearest $100. Housing, books, travel and course-specific differentials are not included in them.
- Checked against the administering body
- Compact membership at this level was checked against the commission that runs the program (WICHE, MHEC, SREB and NEBHE). The residency test — the durational requirement, the domicile evidence and the dependent-student rule — was checked against Arkansas Division of Higher Education, Ark. Code Ann. § 6-60-204. Nothing here is taken from another comparison site.
Not advice. In-State Check is independent of every college, compact and state agency named here. Residency classification and award decisions are made by the institution you apply to. Found an error? Send the page URL and the source that contradicts it to [email protected], and the page is corrected and re-dated. Full methodology.