Because someone is going to find this thread and think it's a Guide, here is some useful information that we've gleaned from the thread. Note, the topic is 'Orthodox' Jewish life - while there are a lot of great resources out there, not many of them seems orthodox specific, but they're a useful starting point. Please feel free to improve the wiki.
Some Caveats:
- Not all Campus Chabad's are "Official" Chabad houses - they may not show up in the chabad.org search
- Data and situations change all of the time - the resources above are good guidelines, but always reach out and check
Establishing Residency:
A lot of "State" colleges have different in-state/out-of-state tuition rates. For example, Rutgers and SUNY are about 25-30 for in-state residents, and 40-45 for out of state residents. "State" colleges aren't limited to the ones with "state" in their names, and in some examples, because of state funding, even private colleges have different rates - Cornell, being one example,certain schools are funded in part by SUNY, and have reduced in-state tuition.
In addition, as colleges search for more money, they'll sometimes admit more out-of-state students for the purpose of having someone pay the higher tuition. Originally, people would use the opportunity to switch residency freshman year so that subsequent years are at the in-state rate. But colleges have caught on making it more difficult to switch. For example, Maryland recently (last year) changed their requirements so that you have to be living in-state for purposes other than Education, and that you are not dependent on income from your parents who live out of state:
http://registrar.umd.edu/Residency/resreclassfaq.html. Every state and school has different residency requirements, it's worth checking each school.
Some important notes:
- Some schools allow you to claim residency if you don't live there, but attended high school there. A common example - kids in NY who go to HS in NJ or vice versa, or someone who is from NY, but went to boarding school in another state. Again, need to check with the school
- Some schools need you to establish residency there for 12 months. So you could take a gap year in that new state, and then use that as the basis for residency
Doing a Gap Year(s) first:
- Assuming that you applied to college while still in high school, some colleges will let you defer your admission, others will not
- Most schools will allow you to defer one year, but a lot may not allow more than that (Macaulay honors at CUNY is one example)
- Getting Yeshiva/Seminary credits accepted is a mixed bag - it depends on the school, major, and program
- Some programs don't accept any credits, others will accept credits, but they may not account towards your major. For example, if you major in something technical like engineering, you may need 110-115 credits in required courses, so even if they take your 32 credits from Israel, not all count towards your degree
- Most colleges have minimum residency requirements, which max the number of credits you can transfer in