In-State Tuition in Pennsylvania: Residency Rules and Out-of-State Rates (Graduate, 2026)
To get in-state tuition in Pennsylvania you need 12 months of Pennsylvania domicile before the term begins (22 Pa. Code § 33.1). In-state graduate tuition is $24,000 a year at Penn State Graduate School, against $40,000 for non-residents. Pennsylvania belongs to no regional tuition compact at this level.
- You would pay
- $24,000/yr
- Resident pays
- $24,000/yr
- Non-resident rate
- $40,000/yr
- Residency worth over 2 yrs
- $32,000
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.
The graduate residency gap in Pennsylvania is $16,000 a year: $24,000 for residents at Penn State Graduate School, $40,000 for non-residents. Pennsylvania does not belong to any of the four regional tuition compacts, so an out-of-state student has no exchange-program route into the in-state rate.
Pennsylvania classifies a student as a resident after 12 months of domicile. 12 months of continuous physical presence in Pennsylvania together with abandonment of your previous state's domicile; presence for the purpose of attending school does not count toward the clock on its own. Classification is decided by the institution you enroll at, and a financially dependent student is assigned the parents' domicile.
This page covers all 50 origin states. Direction matters: what a Pennsylvania resident pays elsewhere is a different question from what an arriving student pays here, and the two are rarely symmetric.
What Pennsylvania charges, and who pays less
| Route | What it gives you | Per year | Saving | Guaranteed? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania residency | You pay the published resident rate once you meet the state's residency test. | $24,000 | $16,000 | Yes, if eligible |
Pennsylvania residency requirements
| Durational requirement | 12 months of domicile before the term begins |
|---|---|
| Domicile test | 12 months of continuous physical presence in Pennsylvania together with abandonment of your previous state's domicile; presence for the purpose of attending school does not count toward the clock on its own. |
| Dependent students | A financially dependent student is assigned the parents' domicile. If your parents are not Pennsylvania residents, you are not one either, regardless of where you live. |
| Independent students | A financially independent adult can establish domicile on their own record. |
| Named exceptions |
|
| Authority | Pennsylvania Department of Education ↗(22 Pa. Code § 33.1) |
Step by step
- Confirm you meet the Pennsylvania domicile test: 12 months of continuous physical presence in Pennsylvania together with abandonment of your previous state's domicile; presence for the purpose of attending school does not count toward the clock on its own.
- Gather the documents the Pennsylvania Department of Education asks for — a driver's license, voter registration, vehicle registration and a 12-month record of physical presence are the usual set.
- File the residency classification form with the campus registrar before the term's deadline; classification is decided by the institution, not by the state.
- If you are financially dependent, check whose domicile counts — Pennsylvania assigns a dependent student the parents' domicile, so the parents must qualify.
Official links
Coming to Pennsylvania from another state
Direction matters. These cover the exact move into Pennsylvania at graduate level:
All 50 origin states
Leaving Pennsylvania to study elsewhere
What a Pennsylvania resident pays in each of the other 50 states:
All 50 destination states
Pennsylvania at other levels
Asked and answered
›What are the residency requirements for in-state tuition in Pennsylvania?
12 months of continuous physical presence in Pennsylvania together with abandonment of your previous state's domicile; presence for the purpose of attending school does not count toward the clock on its own. The durational requirement is 12 months, administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education under 22 Pa. Code § 33.1. Classification is made by the institution you enroll at, not centrally.
›How much is out-of-state tuition in Pennsylvania?
$40,000 a year in tuition and mandatory fees at Penn State Graduate School for 2025–26, against $24,000 for a resident — a gap of $16,000. Rates differ by campus and by college within a campus.
›Which tuition exchange programs does Pennsylvania belong to?
None at graduate level. Pennsylvania is not a member of any of the four regional tuition compacts for this level of study, so out-of-state students have no exchange-program route to a reduced rate.
›Can I get in-state tuition in Pennsylvania after one year of living there?
12 months of domicile is the requirement, but time alone is not enough. You have to show you moved to live in Pennsylvania rather than to attend college there — driver's license, vehicle registration, voter registration, employment and state tax filing are the evidence campuses ask for. A financially dependent student is assigned the parents' domicile regardless.
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 University Park — tuition and fees ↗Accessed 2026-08-07
- Penn State 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 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.