Do Colorado Residents Get In-State Tuition in Louisiana? (Graduate, 2026)
No — Colorado residents pay full non-resident graduate tuition in Louisiana, about $27,000 a year at LSU Graduate School against $10,300 for residents. There is no exchange program between Colorado and Louisiana; the only route to the in-state rate is establishing Louisiana residency, which takes 12 months.
- You would pay
- $27,000/yr
- Resident pays
- $10,300/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.
Colorado and Louisiana sit in different compact regions, so nothing connects them. A Colorado resident at LSU Graduate School pays $27,000 a year against $10,300 for a Louisiana resident — a gap of $16,700.
The comparison that matters is with home: CU Boulder Graduate School charges a Colorado resident $15,700 a year. 14 other states offer Colorado residents a reduced graduate rate, the lowest being Wyoming at about $7,000.
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 Colorado to Louisiana
No exchange program or bilateral agreement connects these two states at graduate level, so the route table is empty.
Where Colorado residents pay less
Staying home, a Colorado resident pays $15,700 a year for in-state graduate tuition at CU Boulder Graduate School. The cheapest Louisiana option for you is $27,000 at LSU Graduate School, which is $11,300 a year more than staying home, or $22,600 over 2 years.
Colorado belongs to Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) at graduate level, so 14 of 50 states offer Colorado graduate students a reduced rate. Louisiana is not one of them.
| State | Route | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Colorado to Wyoming | Western Regional Graduate Program · University of Wyoming graduate programs | $7,000 |
| Colorado to Montana | Western Regional Graduate Program · University of Montana Graduate School | $8,000 |
| Colorado to New Mexico | Western Regional Graduate Program · UNM Graduate Studies | $8,000 |
| Colorado to Nevada | Western Regional Graduate Program · UNLV Graduate College | $9,000 |
| Colorado to Utah | Western Regional Graduate Program · University of Utah Graduate School | $9,300 |
Colorado's neighboring states, compared
What a Colorado resident pays for graduate tuition in each state that borders Colorado, cheapest first:
- Wyoming$7,000/yr · Western Regional Graduate Program
- New Mexico$8,000/yr · Western Regional Graduate Program
- Utah$9,300/yr · Western Regional Graduate Program
- Arizona$13,100/yr · Western Regional Graduate Program
- Kansas$26,600/yr · non-resident
- Oklahoma$26,600/yr · non-resident
- Nebraska$28,300/yr · non-resident
Compare all 50 states from Colorado in the checker. Each figure is one reference campus per state, not a state average.
Louisiana residency, in brief
Louisiana grants in-state tuition after 12 months of domicile before the term begins (La. Admin. Code tit. 28, Pt V), and a financially dependent student takes the parents' domicile. Moving to Louisiana to enroll does not by itself start the clock.
Louisiana residency requirements in full · how long every state requires
Step by step
- Budget for the non-resident rate at LSU Graduate School: $27,000 a year against $10,300 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: Louisiana requires 12 months of domicile, and a financially dependent student takes the parents' domicile, so the family would need to move.
- Read the Louisiana Board of Regents 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 Colorado residents get in-state tuition in Louisiana?
No. Colorado residents pay the full non-resident rate of $27,000 at LSU Graduate School. The only route to the $10,300 in-state rate is establishing Louisiana residency.
›How long does it take to get in-state tuition in Louisiana?
Louisiana requires 12 months of domicile before the term begins (La. Admin. Code tit. 28, Pt V), and a financially dependent student takes the parents' domicile.
›How much would graduate study in Louisiana actually cost a Colorado resident?
About $27,000 a year in tuition and mandatory fees at LSU Graduate School, against $10,300 for a Louisiana resident. Figures are compiled 2025–26 published rates and exclude housing, books and course-specific differentials.
›Where can Colorado residents get reduced graduate tuition?
In 14 states at graduate level. Outside Louisiana, the lowest are Wyoming ($7,000), Montana ($8,000), New Mexico ($8,000). Each figure is one reference campus, and awards are made campus by campus.
›Is studying in Louisiana cheaper than staying in Colorado?
No. Colorado's in-state graduate rate is $15,700 a year at CU Boulder Graduate School, and the cheapest Louisiana option for a Colorado resident is $27,000, so Louisiana costs about $11,300 more a year, or $22,600 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.
- Louisiana Board of Regents — residency for tuition purposes ↗Accessed 2026-08-07
- LSU Graduate School — tuition and fees ↗Accessed 2026-08-07
- CU Boulder Graduate School — 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 LSU Graduate School’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, SREB). The residency test — the durational requirement, the domicile evidence and the dependent-student rule — was checked against Louisiana Board of Regents, La. Admin. Code tit. 28, Pt V. 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.