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Residency Requirements

To receive full support, students are expected to be in residence 9 months of the year. They are expected not to perform any outside activities that will interfere with the full-time pursuit of graduate studies.

Although there is no summer residency requirement for graduate students not receiving summer compensation (i.e. Summer Session TAships, Graduate Student Research appointments), graduates are strongly advised to continue to work on their research with their advisor for at least two months over the summer.

California Residency

The department only pays non-resident supplemental tuition for non-resident students during their first year and expects them to obtain California residency before the fall quarter of their second year. In order to do this, students need to provide the Registrar’s Office with information establishing residency in California for one year. For further questions regarding residency, not answered by the Registrar's Office, please contact the Residence Deputy at the Registrar's Office residencedeputy@ucsd.edu (858-534-4586). Please note that the majority of foreign students are excluded from this residency requirement because they are ineligible to establish residence for tuition purposes in California.

If you are an adult student (at least 18 years old), you can establish residence for tuition purposes in California if:

  • You are a U.S. citizen
  • You are a permanent resident or other immigrant, or
  • You are a nonimmigrant who is not precluded from establishing a domicile in the United States. Nonimmigrants who are not precluded from establishing domicile in the U.S. include those who hold valid visas of the following types: A, E, G, H1, H4, I, K, L, O1, O3, R, or V
  • You have been conferred lawful presence in the U.S. through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and hold an approved I-821D.