What is In-State and Out-of-State College

The terminology is simple - In-state college is within your state of residency and Out-of-state is not.

Generally, the residency decision is based on your tax residency. If you are staying and paying taxes primarily in California for more than a year before college application acceptance - you are good to be considered as an in-state resident.

It affects the fees you pay to public colleges in the state. E.g The University of California typically charges in-state parent annual fees of $33,000, and the out-of-state student (including international) will pay almost double the fees for the same. Big difference there.

For private colleges - there is no difference between in-state or out. E.g Stanford will not care where you are coming from. They will go with sticker price and may offer scholarships based on merits based on profile.