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Is it at all possible to apply for in state tuition in multiple states? Whether or not you were granted residency in neither, one, or both states would this possibly come up in a character and fitness evaluation?

This question seems to arise quite a bit from military personnel & those who were raised by a family serving in the military. Probably depends upon the specifics of your claim to residency & each state's rules for residency status.

P.S. In short, need specifics. However, if your house lies on a state line & you pay property & income taxes in both states & wear a shirt that is, for instance, half Alabama Tide & half Georgia Bulldogs, then you're in good shape for dual residency.

You won't be "applying" for in-state tuition until you know which school you'll be attending. Many schools allow you to apply for in-state tuition as long as you have moved to the state ahead of time, though the timing varies. There are definitely no character and fitness issues with applying to more than one state school, but there would be an issue if you claimed residency (on the school application) to more than one state.

Not a C&F issue if claims made are reasonable & not clearly fradulent.

Multiple residencies in different states is not uncommon, but the issue here involves residency for a specific purpose for which most, if not all, states have specific requirements or standards. Typically, domicile is limited to one state, however.

Thanks everyone. I think I will have to take this issue up with the state bar(s). Looking at the residency forms of each state there doesn't appear to be any language that would prevent me from declaring residency in both, but better safe then extremely, utterly, depressingly sorry.

CanadianWolf wrote:Not a C&F issue if claims made are reasonable & not clearly fradulent.

Multiple residencies in different states is not uncommon, but the issue here involves residency for a specific purpose for which most, if not all, states have specific requirements or standards. Typically, domicile is limited to one state, however.

You don't think it would be an issue if OP claimed that he was a resident of California on a Boalt application, and also a resident of Michigan on a Mich app? Seems pretty risky to me, regardless of the difference between residency and domicile.

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@Void: No, I do not think that it will be a C&F issue unless blatantly fraudulent or without any reasonable basis for claiming residency in each state. Many people own homes in more than one state, for example. Although this may not be enough to establish residency for tuition purposes, it can be for other purposes.

It is possible to have residency in multiple states.

Personal example: I moved to Chicago last August for a job. My parents still live in Missouri. I applied to UIUC as an in-state application because I would have lived there more than a year by the time I started. If I had decided to apply to Missouri-Columbia as well, I would have applied as an in-state there as well because my parents own property there and I paid Missouri Taxes on my 2011 taxes.

Another example: Folks who live in NYC during the work week & go home to their family in Connecticutt or New Jersey during weekends. Owning homes & paying taxes in different states makes a residency claim reasonable.

An update: I called multiple schools and talked to bar associations in both states. While no definite answer was provided the consensus seems to be as long as your claim of residency isn't clearly fraudulent there should be no problems. Take it with a grain of salt.