<p>So I want to go to the University of Central Florida. I lived there from age three until 6th grade. For the past 7 years I've lived on Long Island. My step-mom, who is now divorced from my father, moved back to Florida after they broke up in New York. The in-state tuition price for UCF is obviously lower than the out of state. To qualify for the in-state tuition you must live in Florida for one year. So my question is, if I go to UCF and pay the out of state tuition for a year, then use my divorced step-mom's Florida residency address, can I qualify for in-state tuition for the remaining three years at UCF?</p>
<p>Thanks for your help everybody.</p>
<p>No. It doesn’t sound like you’re old enough. Your state of residency is based on where your parents live (not ex-step-parents). </p>
<p>The state that your parents pay TAXES in is where you’d get instate rates.</p>
<p>Moving there and paying OOS rates will tell the state that you moved there for education purposes, not for residency. your parents would have to move there.</p>
<p>This comes up a lot. The answer is not a simple one because each school makes its own rules as to who gets in state residency and it does not necessarily match up with what the state requriements are. You can move into any state, get your driver’s license, car registration, register to vote and be on the rolls for their taxes without a murmur. That isn’t the issue here. There are usually very specific rules that a college has for a student to be considered in state for tuition purposes and they usually have to do with where your PARENTS, not former step parent, aunt, grandma, friend , lives, not where YOU live. Also, they want to know if you are in the state for any other reason than for college, which means, do you have a full time job or did you parent move there. Again, moving in with a former step parent, friend, uncle. cousin, boyfriend, doesn’t usually cut it. Remember, for colleges, you are still considered dependent on your parents, so it’s usually where they live and pay taxes and meet the residence requirements that count, not you.</p>
<p>Now having said that, again, every college has it s own rules and I’m just saying how it usually works. You have to look up what the rules are for UCF. Even if it doesn’t look good, the other thing you have to do, is see how the rules are enforced. Some colleges have the rules up there but they don’t have any enforcement of them. You report a state address as you residence, then that’s good enough for them. Community college here is that way. You live here and say you are a resident here, then you pay in state resident rates. But schools that tend to have a lot of OOSers do tend to check these things out because they want that OOS extra money. Some schools particularly go after it, and they are not about to give it up without checking it out long and hard. </p>
<p>I have no idea how UCF operates in this department. Do be aware that a state that does not enforce their residence rules can suddenly decide to do so at any time. Happened recently with a GA state school.</p>
<p>no you must live there before you apply as a freshman. If you apply as an out of state student then you are an out of state student. I wouldnt suggest using your stepmom’s address either because that is called cheating the system which is frowned upon and it has serious repercussions when you are caught</p>
<p>I don’t suppose your parents put money in the Florida Prepaid College Program while you lived there? If so, you qualify for residency for tuition purposes at UCF according to their guidelines. </p>
<p>Otherwise, if you can manage to work A LOT while in school, that is, enough to make more than 50% of the cost of in-state attendance and not get claimed as dependent on parent’s taxes, you can submit documents to verify this and petition to change status after 1st year, not sure how hard this is to accomplish.</p>
<p><a href=“Apply | UCF Undergraduate Admissions”>Apply | UCF Undergraduate Admissions; Go to this link and click on yes for Florida residency to see the possible ways to gain residency for tuition purposes.</p>
<p>Ah yes, you can file that petition to change residency. But read carefully! You MUST be able to document that you are earning enough money to cover more than 50% of your expenses and that would include your first year OOS tuition costs…plus all of your living expenses.</p>
<p>And even then, the school can say your domicile is that of your parents who reside in NY.</p>
<p>I think you know that you are NOT an instate student for tuition purposes in Florida. And the loopholes are few.</p>
<p>And even IF you gained instate status for tuition, you would not be considered independent for financial aid purposes.</p>