rokdrokd

The only thing i saw that would give you trouble for "just being a student" was at SDSU, in some wording that sounded like it might be geared more toward undergrads - requiring emancipation and all. I saw no such wording on CUs pages. I've also talked to each department and they say that "you'll apply for instate tuition when you arrive and begin the semester" as if it's not a problem. I know it's not a hard fact, but if you're concerned and can't find the right info, I would just call the dept. admin or your assigned advisor(s) and ask, they're the experts! I understand your concern, SDSU isn't so bad, it's like 2232 a semester of addition tuition on 6 credits out of state. Boulder jumps from around 8 or 9K to 19K, BIG difference.

I was accepted to both schools (different program) as well and have researched this quite a bit. Each website has all the information you need. Basically as far as the states are concerned once you live there primarily without any ties to, in your case mass., you're a CA/CO resident. You have to start the process of establishing residency for a full year before you'll qualify for in-state tuition. So you need things like a CA/CO license, a signed current lease in the relevant state, etc., and then your year starts. Basically becoming a "State resident" isn't too difficult, you just have to live there and no where else, and get a license etc., but residency is for tuition purposes, so you go to the school's admin office and start the process like a previously mentioned. If you google things like "CO residency", or "CU residency", etc. you will find the right info, they all have it online. Let me know if you have any lucky, i can track down links if you don't!

Thanks everyone for your thoughts on this predicament! I thought I would share my decision for anyone who has a similar issue, for no other reason than to offer an example. I'm in a specific situation and so is everyone else, after all! I went with the funded school. I'm going to wait it out and accept the offer on the final day (March 28th), since it's technically possible that someone will turn down funding at my first, unfunded choice, and it would fall to me. After hearing the advice from everyone here, my undergrad profs, and even my POI at my first choice school, it would simply be beyond stupid to turn down a funded offer in my case. Luckily the differences in the MA programs are little and the research opportunities are surprisingly similar, so for me it became a no-brainer after some research, deliberation, and advice. Thank you to everyone here at gradcafe for making this such a fantastic resource! And thanks to those of you who commented on this thread, time to find a smug cat.

I want to put a question out to everyone about a decision I have to make. This will likely come across as an outrageous question because the decision should be obvious. I applied to two masters programs. I was accepted to my number 1 school without initial funding. There is a possibility that I will be able to pick up a GAship but I would not know until June, well after I would need to decided. It's either number one or number two on any given list for the field I applied to, and I would be studying exactly what I set out to study when I chose to apply to any school at all. The number two school has offered me a GAship with decent funding, not full funding because I am out of state and it's highly competitive for non-residents to get a full tuition waver. I would not know about having full tuition coverage until after making the decision, but regardless this offer presents a much smaller financial risk. Yet I almost didn't apply to this school because I would not be studying exactly what I set out to do. So my question is, is it just plain stupid to give up a funded offer in favor of an un-funded offer, just on the premise that the latter is a better program/fit/etc.? It feels incredibly selfish to have such a predicament, but alas, this isn't an easy decision for me. Thank you everyone!