Every US citizen is a legal resident of a particular state within the union. It could depend on several factors, such as their dependency (i.e. where their parents or legal guardians live), place of high school graduation, or recent employment status. An international student would (initially) be a resident of no state. Moving to a new state for the purpose of attending college does not qualify you as legal resident, but some states may grant resident status after a certain period of time attending one of their institutions and/or being employed in that state, and "showing an intent" to make that state your permanent home. That's crucial for those who decide on that path; non-resident tuition can be as much as four times what residents are paying...about as much as Harvard and MIT.
UCLA, one of the top public universities in the nation (rated the #4 public national university by US News), and a major draw of students from other states, does not have an aviation program, but they do have an extremely well-regarded aeropsace engineering program. For an example of resident and non-resident fees, UCLA charges $6,504 and $24,672 per year respectively.