Key Takeaways:
- Your permanent home address is your fixed address that you use on official documents.
- It can affect financial aid eligibility, college acceptance chances, and tuition rates.
- Lying about your permanent home address can result in lost financial aid and acceptance offers.
A permanent home address is a person’s fixed address. It’s used on legal documents, driver’s licenses, state IDs, rent and mortgage agreements, and more. For students, a permanent home address can impact financial aid offers, tuition rates, scholarship qualification, and more. Here’s a quick overview of what a permanent home address means for students.
What is Permanent Mailing Address for Students?
A permanent home address for students is the main location where the student resides, or their prime residence. It’s also sometimes called “permanent mailing address.” You need to know this address to complete college applications, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and more.
For students who reside in a single location while going to high school, such as their parents’ home, the answer to this question is straightforward – it’s your address. If you’re in boarding school, your permanent address is the location you return to when you’re not in school.
However, for those who have divorced parents or those who move regularly, it can get a little confusing. If the parents are divorced or separated, the parent’s address where the student spends most of the time would be the permanent home address. If one parent or both are in the military, the state of legal residence is the permanent address.
Permanent Vs. Current Address
For most students, a permanent and current address are the same. However, your current address isn’t always your permanent home address.
Here are a few examples:
- You attend boarding school. Even if you receive mail at your dorm room, your dorm room is your current address, not your permanent one.
- You attend college and live on campus. Your dorm room isn’t a permanent address; it’s your current address.
- You’re at your vacation home. Your non-vacation home is your permanent address, while your vacation home is your current address. If you move to your vacation home full-time and don’t plan to return to your previous address, you can make the vacation home your permanent home.
Your Permanent Home Address and College
When it comes to college, your permanent home address is a big deal. It can affect everything from your financial aid offers to your acceptance chances.
These are three primary reasons you need to know your permanent mailing address when you apply to and attend college:
1. Acceptance Rate
Did you know that colleges sometimes consider state residency during admissions decisions? It’s quite possible living in a particular state could increase your chances of getting an acceptance letter.
You can find out more about how important your permanent home address is to colleges by researching their Common Data Set. For example, the University of West Florida considers state residency “very important.” At Harvard University, it’s “not considered.”
2. Tuition
Residency status can also affect how much money you pay in tuition, especially at public schools. If you attend a college in your state of residency, you’ll likely pay less than if you attend a college out of state.
For instance, attending the University of Florida during the 2025-26 academic year as an in-state undergraduate student is $6,380 for tuition and fees. If you’re from out of state, your tuition and fees are nearly 4.5x more expensive, at $28,658.
Some schools and regions have tuition exchange or reciprocity programs, where you pay in-state tuition rates even though you live out of state. For example, if you live in Kansas, but want to attend a school in Michigan, you might qualify for lower tuition through the Midwest Student Exchange.
3. Financial Aid
Your permanent home address can affect your financial aid in a few different ways.
- Institutional aid: Colleges may consider state or district residency when determining non-need and need based institutional aid. If they consider state/district residency, you’re more likely to receive a scholarship or grant from an in-state school or one within your region.
- State grants: Most states have grants and scholarships for their students, but you have to have a permanent home address within that state. Some states offer awards for students who will attend in that state, even if they’re not a permanent resident.
- Scholarships: Many scholarships are restricted to specific regions, states, counties, or cities. You can only qualify if you have a permanent location that fits their requirements.
- Student Aid Index: The Department of Education uses your answers on the FAFSA to determine your Student Aid Index (SAI) and federal aid. This formula considers your area’s cost of living, which could be higher or lower depending on the address. A lower SAI could mean you qualify for more financial aid.
Can You Lie About Your Permanent Home Address?
Living in a different location might make you eligible for additional financial aid, lower tuition, and higher acceptance chances, but if you don’t actually live there, you cannot use a permanent home address that’s not yours. It can have serious implications if you’re caught.
If your untruthful on college applications, you could see your acceptance offers rescinded or backpay any difference between in-state and out-of-state rates. For financial aid, you’ll likely have to pay back any money you received. Deliberately falsifying information on the FAFSA can also result in up to five years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
It’s important to know your permanent home address as you prepare to apply for and attend college. Check with a financial planner to see how your address might affect your student loans and aid options.
Want to learn more about how your location impacts your total cost of college? Sign up for College Match to start seeing how much you can expect to pay at any particular school.
