In-State Eligibility Checker
Enter your home state, the school's state and your level. Returns whether you qualify for in-state, reduced or full non-resident tuition, the rule that governs it, the estimated annual cost, and the official source.
Dataset verified 2026-09-27 · 2025–26 rates · 51 jurisdictions × 51 × 3 levels
In-State Eligibility Checker
Three fields. Returns the governing rule, the estimated rate, and the official source.
No states chosen yet
Pick a home state and a school state above, and the verdict appears here. Worked example: California to Arizona at University of Arizona costs $20,400 a year instead of $41,100, under Western Undergraduate Exchange.
Every answer this returns is also a static page — 7,650 of them, one per state pair per level.
Full comparison table
Every state's undergraduate rates and compact memberships, 2025–26. This table is in the page source, so it works with the checker, without it, and for anything reading the HTML directly.
| State | Resident | Non-resident | Compacts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $13,700 | $34,900 | ACM |
| Alaska | $9,300 | $27,600 | WUE |
| Arizona | $13,600 | $41,100 | WUE |
| Arkansas | $10,300 | $29,700 | ACM |
| California | $15,900 | $49,600 | WUE |
| Colorado | $14,000 | $41,300 | WUE |
| Connecticut | $20,400 | $45,100 | Tuition Break |
| Delaware | $15,900 | $40,600 | ACM |
| District of Columbia | $8,400 | $16,700 | No compact |
| Florida | $6,400 | $28,700 | No compact |
| Georgia | $12,100 | $32,000 | ACM |
| Hawaii | $12,600 | $35,000 | WUE |
| Idaho | $9,400 | $30,200 | WUE |
| Illinois | $18,000 | $38,000 | No compact |
| Indiana | $12,000 | $41,700 | MSEP |
| Iowa | $10,900 | $33,600 | No compact |
| Kansas | $12,000 | $30,600 | MSEP |
| Kentucky | $13,700 | $34,200 | ACM |
| Louisiana | $12,000 | $29,000 | ACM |
| Maine | $12,600 | $34,500 | Tuition Break |
| Maryland | $11,900 | $42,000 | ACM |
| Massachusetts | $17,400 | $40,100 | Tuition Break |
| Michigan | $17,700 | $58,000 | No compact |
| Minnesota | $16,500 | $36,000 | MSEP |
| Mississippi | $9,900 | $28,000 | ACM |
| Missouri | $12,400 | $31,600 | MSEP |
| Montana | $8,000 | $30,600 | WUE |
| Nebraska | $10,300 | $28,700 | MSEP |
| Nevada | $8,900 | $26,000 | WUE |
| New Hampshire | $19,000 | $38,000 | Tuition Break |
| New Jersey | $17,700 | $37,700 | No compact |
| New Mexico | $8,900 | $28,300 | WUE |
| New York | $10,900 | $30,600 | No compact |
| North Carolina | $9,000 | $39,300 | No compact |
| North Dakota | $11,100 | $16,700 | WUEMSEP |
| Ohio | $13,200 | $39,400 | MSEP |
| Oklahoma | $12,000 | $29,800 | ACM |
| Oregon | $15,100 | $43,500 | WUE |
| Pennsylvania | $20,000 | $40,000 | No compact |
| Rhode Island | $16,800 | $37,700 | Tuition Break |
| South Carolina | $13,700 | $36,300 | ACM |
| South Dakota | $10,000 | $13,600 | WUE |
| Tennessee | $14,100 | $33,700 | ACM |
| Texas | $11,700 | $42,000 | No compact |
| Utah | $10,000 | $32,000 | WUE |
| Vermont | $20,700 | $46,900 | Tuition Break |
| Virginia | $22,300 | $60,000 | ACM |
| Washington | $12,900 | $43,000 | WUE |
| West Virginia | $9,900 | $27,300 | ACM |
| Wisconsin | $11,600 | $42,100 | MSEP |
| Wyoming | $6,700 | $21,000 | WUE |
How to use it
- Pick your level. Choose undergraduate, community college or graduate. Program coverage differs by level — MSEP does not reach two-year colleges, and ACM admits Florida and Texas students only at graduate level.
- Enter your home state. This is the state where you hold residency today, not where you were born or where you went to high school.
- Enter the school's state. Direction matters. What a Texan pays in Oklahoma is a different question from what an Oklahoman pays in Texas, and the two are frequently not symmetric.
- Read the verdict and check the source. The checker returns every applicable route ranked by cost, marks which are conditional, and links the compact commission or residency authority so you can verify before applying.
What it checks against
WUE
Western Undergraduate Exchange
The Western Undergraduate Exchange lets residents of 15 western states pay no more than 150% of the resident tuition rate at participating public colleges in the other member states. It is not in-state tuition. Awards are made by each campus, are capped in number, and usually close months before the admissions deadline.
MSEP
Midwest Student Exchange Program
The Midwest Student Exchange Program lets residents of eight midwestern states pay no more than 150% of the resident rate at participating public colleges in the other member states, or at least 10% off published tuition at participating private colleges. Participation is institution by institution, and MSEP status is not in-state residency.
ACM
Academic Common Market
The Academic Common Market lets residents of 15 southern states pay full in-state tuition at a public university in another member state, but only for a specific approved degree program their own state's public universities do not offer. Your home state's ACM coordinator certifies eligibility before the rate applies.
Tuition Break
New England Regional Student Program (Tuition Break)
NEBHE's Tuition Break lets residents of the six New England states pay a reduced rate — the in-state rate plus a premium capped at 75% of it — at public colleges in the other five, for approved degree programs. It covers community colleges, state universities and graduate programs, and it is a discount rather than in-state residency.
Plus every documented bilateral agreement between two states, the District of Columbia's portable DCTAG award, and all 51 residency codes. Compare residency rules →
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Asked and answered
›How does the checker decide the answer?
It evaluates four things in order against the state pair you enter: whether it is a same-state case, whether a bilateral agreement links the two states at your level, whether both states belong to a regional compact that covers your level, and whether your home state offers a portable award. Every applicable route is returned and ranked by estimated annual cost, with conditional routes flagged.
›Is the checker's answer a decision?
No. Residency classification and exchange-program awards are made by the institution you apply to. The checker tells you which rule governs your case and where the official source is; it cannot and does not determine eligibility.
›Why does the direction of the pair matter?
Because agreements are frequently one-directional. Texas waives non-resident tuition for students from named counties in four neighboring states and receives nothing back, so the answer for Oklahoma-to-Texas differs from Texas-to-Oklahoma. Level overrides work the same way: Florida and Texas participate in the Academic Common Market at graduate level only.
›Where do the dollar figures come from?
Each state is represented by one reference institution, and the figures are that institution's published 2025–26 tuition and mandatory fees for a full-time student, rounded to the nearest $100. They exclude housing, books and course-specific differentials, and they are refreshed each June. The reference institution is named on every state page.
›Does the checker work without JavaScript?
The interactive form does not, but the page does. The full 51-state comparison table below is in the page source, and every answer the checker can produce is also published as a static page — 7,650 of them, one per state pair per level.
How this page was made
Compiled and checked by Billy Reiner, editor of In-State Check. Last verified 2026-09-27.
- Compiled from published rate pages
- Every dollar figure on this site is tuition and mandatory fees for one full-time year, read from the named reference institution’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 is checked against the commission that runs each program (WICHE, MHEC, SREB and NEBHE), and every residency rule against the issuing state authority or statute. 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.