Rachel Higgins, who grew up in my hometown, Wayne, New Jersey, has been living at Penn State for over the last year, yet despite this, the school has denied her in-state tuition.
Higgins’ father passed away in 2013, and her mom died in 2016, as Higgins was finishing her freshman year at Penn State, where she has called home ever since. However, because of some bureaucratic bullshit at the school, she might lose that home, too, as Penn State denied her appeal to be allowed to pay the in-state tuition rate.
Higgins, 20, has lived in Pennsylvania since she began attending Penn State during the summer of 2015. She says that if she has to pay the out-of-state tuition cost of about $48,000, she will not be able to afford to return to school.
“I gave them the death certificate and everything,” she told Penn Live, “I was hoping they would understand that.”
via Penn Live:
The problem is she fails to meet this part of Penn State’s residency policy: In order to qualify for the in-state tuition rate, someone must have been a Pennsylvania resident for at least a year before enrolling at Penn State. An Aug. 4 letter informing Higgins of her appeal outcome said in part: “Note that it is possible to be a resident of the Commonwealth, yet not meet with requirements of residency for purposes of tuition.”
Following her mother’s death, Higgins took the address of a cousin who lives near Scranton. She now has a Pennsylvania address for things including her driver’s license and car registration. Since her mother’s death, she has usually stayed on campus or with a friend during school breaks and holidays. Higgins, who would be a junior, studies animal science and hopes to work on a horse farm.
Both of her parents, who were split up, had battled cancer for years. She lived with her father prior to his death from cancer in 2013. She then moved into a rented home with her mother, who also succumbed to cancer.
A spokesman for Penn State University said the policy is intended to prevent someone who is essentially an out of state-of-state resident from getting a local address for the purpose of paying the in-state tuition rate, however, their decision comes across as nothing short of tone deaf.
Just a greedy move from a university who has struggled with their image over the last couple of years. Penn State is a billion-dollar institution that could easily afford to accommodate Higgins, yet they are choosing not to, and it’s despicable.
Rachel has created a GoFundMe page for herself, so if you’re feeling charitable today, pitch into a good cause.
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