Do Hawaii Residents Get In-State Tuition in Pennsylvania? (Undergraduate, 2026)
No — Hawaii residents pay full non-resident undergraduate tuition in Pennsylvania, about $40,000 a year at Penn State University Park against $20,000 for residents. There is no exchange program between Hawaii 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
- $20,000/yr
- Over 4 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.
Hawaii and Pennsylvania sit in different compact regions, so nothing connects them. A Hawaii resident at Penn State University Park pays $40,000 a year against $20,000 for a Pennsylvania resident — a gap of $20,000.
The comparison that matters is with home: University of Hawai'i at Manoa charges a Hawaii resident $12,600 a year. 14 other states offer Hawaii residents a reduced undergraduate rate, the lowest being Wyoming at about $10,050.
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 Hawaii to Pennsylvania
No exchange program or bilateral agreement connects these two states at undergraduate level, so the route table is empty.
Where Hawaii residents pay less
Staying home, a Hawaii resident pays $12,600 a year for in-state undergraduate tuition at University of Hawai'i at Manoa. The cheapest Pennsylvania option for you is $40,000 at Penn State University Park, which is $27,400 a year more than staying home, or $109,600 over 4 years.
Hawaii belongs to Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) at undergraduate level, so 14 of 50 states offer Hawaii undergraduate students a reduced rate. Pennsylvania is not one of them.
| State | Route | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Hawaii to Wyoming | Western Undergraduate Exchange · University of Wyoming | $10,050 |
| Hawaii to Montana | Western Undergraduate Exchange · University of Montana | $12,000 |
| Hawaii to Nevada | Western Undergraduate Exchange · University of Nevada, Las Vegas | $13,350 |
| Hawaii to New Mexico | Western Undergraduate Exchange · University of New Mexico | $13,350 |
| Hawaii to South Dakota | Western Undergraduate Exchange · University of South Dakota | $13,600 |
Compare all 50 states from Hawaii 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 University Park: $40,000 a year against $20,000 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 Hawaii residents get in-state tuition in Pennsylvania?
No. Hawaii residents pay the full non-resident rate of $40,000 at Penn State University Park. The only route to the $20,000 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 undergraduate study in Pennsylvania actually cost a Hawaii resident?
About $40,000 a year in tuition and mandatory fees at Penn State University Park, against $20,000 for a Pennsylvania resident. Figures are compiled 2025–26 published rates and exclude housing, books and course-specific differentials.
›Where can Hawaii residents get reduced undergraduate tuition?
In 14 states at undergraduate level. Outside Pennsylvania, the lowest are Wyoming ($10,050), Montana ($12,000), Nevada ($13,350). Each figure is one reference campus, and awards are made campus by campus.
›Is studying in Pennsylvania cheaper than staying in Hawaii?
No. Hawaii's in-state undergraduate rate is $12,600 a year at University of Hawai'i at Manoa, and the cheapest Pennsylvania option for a Hawaii resident is $40,000, so Pennsylvania costs about $27,400 more a year, or $109,600 over 4 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 University Park — tuition and fees ↗Accessed 2026-08-07
- University of Hawai'i at Manoa — 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 University Park’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). 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.