Do District of Columbia Residents Get In-State Tuition in Pennsylvania? (Graduate, 2026)
No — District of Columbia residents pay full non-resident graduate tuition in Pennsylvania, about $40,000 a year at Penn State Graduate School against $24,000 for residents. There is no exchange program between District of Columbia and Pennsylvania; the only route to the in-state rate is establishing Pennsylvania residency, which takes 12 months.
- You would pay
- $40,000/yr
- Resident pays
- $24,000/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.
There is no agreement between these two states at graduate level. The full non-resident rate applies: $40,000 at Penn State Graduate School, where a resident pays $24,000.
No compact or state agreement in our data reaches District of Columbia residents at graduate level in any state. At home, in-state graduate tuition is $12,000 at UDC graduate programs, so Pennsylvania works out at $28,000 a year more than staying home.
Worth checking before you accept the non-resident rate: whether the campus offers a border-county waiver, a legacy or alumni rate, or a merit award pegged to the residency gap. These are institutional decisions and they are not published centrally.
Every route from District of Columbia to Pennsylvania
No exchange program or bilateral agreement connects these two states at graduate level, so the route table is empty.
Where District of Columbia residents pay less
Staying home, a District of Columbia resident pays $12,000 a year for in-state graduate tuition at UDC graduate programs. The cheapest Pennsylvania option for you is $40,000 at Penn State Graduate School, which is $28,000 a year more than staying home, or $56,000 over 2 years.
District of Columbia belongs to none of the four regional tuition compacts at graduate level, and no state or campus agreement in our data reaches District of Columbia residents at this level.
| State | Reference campus | Non-resident, per year |
|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia to South Dakota | USD Graduate School | $13,000 |
| District of Columbia to North Dakota | UND School of Graduate Studies | $19,000 |
| District of Columbia to Wyoming | University of Wyoming graduate programs | $19,000 |
| District of Columbia to Arkansas | University of Arkansas Graduate School | $23,000 |
| District of Columbia to Texas | UT Austin Graduate School | $23,000 |
District of Columbia's neighboring states, compared
What a District of Columbia resident pays for graduate tuition in each state that borders District of Columbia, cheapest first:
Compare all 50 states from District of Columbia in the checker. Each figure is one reference campus per state, not a state average.
Pennsylvania residency, in brief
Pennsylvania grants in-state tuition after 12 months of domicile before the term begins (22 Pa. Code § 33.1), and a financially dependent student takes the parents' domicile. Moving to Pennsylvania to enroll does not by itself start the clock.
Pennsylvania residency requirements in full · how long every state requires
Step by step
- Budget for the non-resident rate at Penn State Graduate School: $40,000 a year against $24,000 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: Pennsylvania requires 12 months of domicile, and a financially dependent student takes the parents' domicile, so the family would need to move.
- Read the Pennsylvania Department of 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 District of Columbia residents get in-state tuition in Pennsylvania?
No. District of Columbia residents pay the full non-resident rate of $40,000 at Penn State Graduate School. The only route to the $24,000 in-state rate is establishing Pennsylvania residency.
›How long does it take to get in-state tuition in Pennsylvania?
Pennsylvania requires 12 months of domicile before the term begins (22 Pa. Code § 33.1), and a financially dependent student takes the parents' domicile.
›How much would graduate study in Pennsylvania actually cost a District of Columbia resident?
About $40,000 a year in tuition and mandatory fees at Penn State Graduate School, against $24,000 for a Pennsylvania resident. Figures are compiled 2025–26 published rates and exclude housing, books and course-specific differentials.
›Where can District of Columbia residents get reduced graduate tuition?
Nowhere through a compact or state agreement: none reaches District of Columbia residents at graduate level in our data. The lowest published non-resident rates are in South Dakota ($13,000), North Dakota ($19,000), Wyoming ($19,000), and campus scholarships remain worth checking.
›Is studying in Pennsylvania cheaper than staying in District of Columbia?
No. District of Columbia's in-state graduate rate is $12,000 a year at UDC graduate programs, and the cheapest Pennsylvania option for a District of Columbia resident is $40,000, so Pennsylvania costs about $28,000 more a year, or $56,000 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.
- Pennsylvania Department of Education — residency for tuition purposes ↗Accessed 2026-08-07
- Penn State Graduate School — tuition and fees ↗Accessed 2026-08-07
- University of the District of Columbia — residency for tuition purposes ↗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 Penn State 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, MHEC, SREB and NEBHE). The residency test — the durational requirement, the domicile evidence and the dependent-student rule — was checked against Pennsylvania Department of Education, 22 Pa. Code § 33.1. 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.