Students Getting Married to Save Tuition Money

Students must meet three requirements to be considered “in-state” for tuition purposes at the University of California, Berkeley: physical presence, intent to remain there, and financial independence. Out-of-state students pay an additional $22,000 per year to attend the school, so some students are employing unusual techniques to meet the residency requirements: they’re getting married. By getting married, students can automatically claim themselves as independent, which is the hardest of the requirements to meet.

One woman posted on Facebook that she was searching for a husband, got married, and saved approximately $50,000 in tuition. Another woman married a childhood friend and saved $38,000 in tuition.

It’s impossible to know how many people have married for this reason, but there is at least one website, whypaytuition.com, that facilitates these unions. Since its inception in 2008, this website has only attracted 56 registered users nationwide.

See Tess Townsend, Get Married, Save Thousands on Tuition, N.Y. Times, Feb. 5, 2011.