Qualified Persons

You must be a qualified person to be eligible to establish a Colorado domicile and begin the one year domicile period necessary to qualify for in-state tuition. Adults, emancipated minors, and graduate students are qualified persons.

You are eligible to establish domicile and begin the one year domicile period if you are at least 22 years old, or are married, or are emancipated from your parents, or if you are a graduate student. Persons not so qualified are unemancipated minors and assume the domicile of their parents or court-appointed legal guardian.

Adult students cannot qualify for in-state tuition through their parents, with the following exception: Because in-state status is lost only after one year of domicile elsewhere, adult students less than age 23 may be able to qualify through their parents. Consult the Tuition Classification Officer at your institution for additional information.

You are an emancipated minor if you are less than 22 years old and if your parents have entirely surrendered the right to your care, custody, and earnings and if they have made no provision for your support. This means that your parents cannot provide financial support of any nature for any ordinary or necessary expense. Parental support includes, but is not limited to, gifts and loans (including PLUS loans) that you depend on for financial support. Trust funds or other assets established by your parents before the one-year domicile period are regarded as evidence of nonemancipation.

If you are an emancipated minor granted in-state tuition status, you are subject to reclassification as out-of-state if your parents resume support.

If you are married, you are emancipated regardless of parental support.

Marriage to a Colorado resident does not by itself qualify you for in-state tuition status. Although such a marriage may be considered some evidence of intent, you must maintain your own Colorado domicile for one year. Consult the Tuition Classification Officer at your institution for additional information.

If you are less than 22 years old and depend on your parents for financial support, you are an unemancipated minor.

As an unemancipated minor, you qualify for in-state tuition if either of your parents, regardless of custody, has been domiciled in Colorado for the one year prior to the first day of class, even if you reside elsewhere. The parent-child or guardian-child relationship must also have been in effect for one year.