Sophomore kinesiology major Linda Kambule emerged from the Mitchell Building toting a large manila envelope and frantically dialing numbers on her cell phone.

Officials in the residency classification office had just told her she would have to come back with more forms if she wanted to be considered for in-state tuition status.

“It’s a very stressful process,” said Kambule, who has been gathering documents to prove her Maryland residency for a year. “I came here to submit everything, but I’m still missing stuff.”

For students applying to pay in-state tuition, the revisions to the in-state residency classifications, passed by the Board of Regents this summer to clarify the process, did little to alleviate the typical flurry on yesterday’s application deadline. They say the process seems just as hard and many students had to make multiple trips back to the office for even the chance of being considered for in-state status.

For many, the right collection of documents could mean the difference of about $13,500 in tuition, but too often that combination is a hard one to attain – even with the policy revisions.

Students applying for a change in status must meet nine requirements for a period of 12 months, including having a Maryland driver’s license, proof of rent payments and Maryland voter’s registration, according to the policy.

But the final requirement insists students rebut the presumption that they are in Maryland purely for education if the previous eight documents don’t already do so.

Even if a student meets the first eight requirements, the ninth has caused the most confusion in the past. And even though the revised policy is supposed to make it easier for students to provide as much evidence as possible, those trailing out of the Mitchell building still felt the requirements were unnecessarily strict.

Kambule thought she had all of the documentation required under the in-state status policy, but there were still wrinkles to iron out. She needed to find copies of her mother’s W2 tax form and additional proof of her mothers’ rent payments, she said.

“It’s horrendous, they ask for way too many things,” she added.

At the office yesterday, staff worked to finalize applications with flustered students who could be denied for as little as missing one copy of one rent check in the past 12 months.

But Provost Bill Destler said the revisions wouldn’t change much.

“It’s not going to suddenly convert 1,000 students to in-state status,” Destler said. “Chances are the changes will be more in the margins.”

Because yesterday was the application deadline, officials still don’t know whether the minor policy changes will affect the number of students applying for or gaining in-state status.

“It may increase the number of petitions, because if as we hope the policy is more helpful now and more clear, it may cause more students to petition than they would in the past,” said Terri Hollander, associate vice chancellor of academic affairs for the University System of Maryland.

Clifford Agyel-Mensah, a junior computer science major, said students should at least be warned about the complicated status-changing process.

“During orientation they should let the students know this is a process they could have to go through,” Agyel-Mensah said.

This is Agyel-Mensah’s second time through the process after being rejected last year.

“I was upset the first time [I was rejected] because I didn’t know they base it off the date on your driver’s license,” he said. “They want it in black and white.”

“This time I’m just waiting for their decision,” he added. “I’m done making trips here.”

Contact reporter Sara Murray at murraydbk@gmail.com.