Cheating the UNC admissions office?

<p>I have a friend (seriously a friend, I'm not talking about myself in the third person) who has always wanted to go to UNC Chapel Hill. We live in New York, so she would be applying out-of-state. And UNC is very selective for out-of-state students, and her rank/test scores just aren't good enough to get in as a NY resident. But, she has an aunt and an uncle living in North Carolina. She said that she could somehow fake living in NC with them, thus allowing her to apply in state and have a much easier time with admissions...</p>

<p>Is this allowed? And could she actually get away with it?</p>

<p>No. The information required to establish instate residency at most public universities is very extensive. </p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=171792%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=171792&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>How can she "fake" living in NC when clearly her highschool transcripts would show that she had been living in and attending HS in NY? She would be better off trying to transfer in from OOS (they don't have the 85% in-state requirement for transfers). BTW, I'll be attending Chapel Hill in the fall as a transfer from CA and I did not do well in HS but worked my tail off at a CC to get a great GPA (also had related work exp. and a lot of ECs)</p>

<p>Becoming a North Carolinian is fairly complicated: [url=<a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/about/association/international/pdf/sr_NC01.pdf%5Dlink%5B/url"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/about/association/international/pdf/sr_NC01.pdf]link[/url&lt;/a&gt;]. </p>

<p>I had also forgotten about the bit regarding waiving tuition for folks over 65...</p>

<p>i don't think she'll be able to get away with that. admissions officers and residency officers do have an extensive list of criteria that each student applying as a resident must meet. i was in a similiar situation just a few months ago while I was applying for transfer to unc. i went to junior high and high school in tampa, and then to college their for 2 years. my parents moved away after my first year of college and i remained in tampa to finish my second year. when i applied to unc as a junior transfer, i figured i'd apply as a resident, based on the fact that my parents had lived their a year and paid their property taxes and had their licenses and voted etc. when i got the letter saying that i was denied resident's status i was completely let down because i knew that i wouldn't be able to go--and issue of money and an issue of the unlikeliness of my admittance due to the 82% rule. in the letter, i was told that if i wished to appeal the decision i may do so. i decided that i wasn't going to accept defeat and went to work plotting how best to go about this. i wrote a well though out, very professional and tactful letter. my case was granted an appeals hearing and i had my dad, go and speak on my behalf. he must have done pretty well because they changed their original decision and allowed me to be a resident. if you look at the cold facts of my case, i think the truth speaks for itself in that i was not a resident, but i showed them something that i think they liked and as a result got their approval. i think not only did my appeal allow the door to be open, but it also helped my application. they got to see more of my writing, as though i had another essay for them to review and ultimately i think my decision to appeal the hearing, and teh way i went about, is what got me accepted.</p>

<p>as for your friend's case, it doesn't hurt to try, but don't try to get them to overlook their rules unless you think you at least have a semi-valid case.</p>

<p>mpuls - I think in your case, though, the following would apply from the link above:

[quote]

To qualify for in-state tuition, a legal resident must have been domiciled in North Carolina for at least twelve months immediately before the academic term for which classification is sought. The person must maintain a permanent NC domicile during that time, as opposed to a temporary abode while enrolled as a student. </p>

<p>For persons who have lived in North Carolina for less than five consecutive years, the domicile of their parents or legal guardian is prima facie evidence of the individuals’ domicile, regardless of their age. This evidence, however, may be reinforced or rebutted by other evidence of age and general circumstances.

[/quote]

A less legalistic page is at UNC's admissions site: <a href="http://www.admissions.unc.edu/faq/residency.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.admissions.unc.edu/faq/residency.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Yeah, that's what I thought, be she said something about her being on her uncle's taxes or something...I have no idea, but I was a little skeptical. Should I tell her that it's a total impossibility, or should I let her figure it out for herself...?</p>

<p>Unless she "divorced" her parents and is a dependent of her aunt and uncle...looks like a HUGE stretch. But - probably should let her figure it out :)</p>

<p>She definitely won't be moving to North Carolina, so I don't know what she was thinking. I'm pretty gullible though, and knowing nothing about the in-state/out-of-state policies I just went along with it...</p>

<p>I'm sure it will be obvious when she has to fill out her application that she won't be getting away with it.</p>