Students worldwide compete to attend the University of California, Berkeley, considered one of the best universities in the United States.
The Bay Citizen
A nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization providing local coverage of the San Francisco Bay Area for The New York Times. To join the conversation about this article, go to baycitizen.org.
But economically, in-state students have a huge advantage over non-Californians, for whom tuition costs an additional $22,000 a year (as of 2010-11).
The financial stakes are so high that some out-of-state students are employing an unusual technique to meet the University of California’s strict residency requirements: they’re getting married.
These marriages do not technically break any laws, but students are understandably hesitant to speak publicly about them. The Bay Citizen was able to find nine such couples.
U.C. students from out of state must meet three requirements to establish residency — physical presence, intent to stay and financial independence — a complicated process that takes at least two years. The independence test is the hardest to pass.
When students marry, they can automatically claim themselves as independent, provided their parents do not claim them as dependents on their taxes. After that, gaining in-state tuition is a breeze.
A few years ago, a student from the Midwest believed she could not afford the annual $30,000 in student fees (including $20,000 in out-of-state tuition), so she posted on Facebook that she was looking for a husband.. (The woman requested anonymity out of fear of repercussions from U.C.)
An out-of-state student whom she did not know responded to her post, and they married in 2007, the summer before her junior year. She graduated in 2009 and estimated that the marriage had saved her $50,000. The couple has divorced.
Of 16,000 Berkeley undergraduates who received financial aid during 2009-10, just 416 were married. University officials said they were not aware of any students marrying for tuition purposes; the number of married students has not changed significantly in recent years, they said.
“If a student has a valid marriage license, it is accepted as proof of his/her marriage,” a U.C. spokesman, Ricardo Vazquez, wrote in an e-mail.
Together, the nine couples identified by The Bay Citizen cost U.C. Berkeley an estimated $350,000 in out-of-state tuition.
After she was accepted to Berkeley in 2006, Elaine Davis of Utah tried hard to establish California residency. She registered to vote in California, got a California driver’s license, worked full time in the state, filed her own taxes and had her parents stop claiming her as a dependent.
When Berkeley still denied her residency (living in an apartment owned by her father disqualified her as independent), Ms. Davis married a childhood friend. She saved $38,000 in out-of-state tuition over two years.
It is impossible to know how common such marriages are, but at least one national Web site exists to facilitate this kind of union.
Whypaytuition.com, created by Rick Conley, an air traffic controller in Texas, is a matchmaking site for couples seeking to marry in order to gain in-state tuition privileges and other savings that come from being classified as independent. It has attracted only 56 registered users since going online in 2008.
Marriage, of course, does not necessarily relieve students of the cost of college. Despite the perks of saying “I do,” Ms. Davis still graduated owing $29,000 in school loans.
