Establishing Residency for Instate tuition?

Paying for College
1

<p>Hey guys, i'm from SC and right behind my house is the NC state line. I pretty much do everything in NC; shop there, eat there, hang out there, all my friends are from there, I've even gone to high school there. Yet I've been going to a community college in SC living with my parents. In about a year I will be transferring over to a new school and I want that school to be University of North Carolina Asheville. Sadly my family can't afford the out-of-state tuiton.</p>

<p>I live with my parents here in SC but they own two houses in NC. What i'm planning to do is to live in one of them starting this summer. Claiming independent, getting my license from there, and also starting to work there. The only thing is i'll probably still be going to the community college in SC. </p>

<p>By the end of next summer will I be able to get in-state tuition if I apply and get into UNCA?
Is there anything else I would have to do?</p>

2

<p>No. Unless you are 24 or over, your residency for instate tuition is based on your parents’ state of residency. You can not “claim independence”.</p>

3

<p>Agree w/scm, that won’t work. </p>

<p>Just google the name of the college and state residency, you’ll get their policy and see that it’s not that easy. Think about it, if it was, there’d be lots of people that would do it.</p>

4

<p>Read the school’s website carefully. </p>

<p>First, some schools and states have policies where residents in border areas can get instate tuition. I do not see that on UNC-Asheville’s webpage, but you may want to call. </p>

<p>From what I can tell of the website, if you are over 18yo, move to NC (not just for school) and are self-supporting, you <em>MAY</em> be able to ask for instate tuition but look at all the things they look for (taxes, car registration, who owns car, who owns house, etc). I can’t see how you would even say you are self-supporting if you are living in your parents’ house. You would need to move there, get a job, support yourself for over 12 months in North Carolina, pay taxes there, register your vehicle, etc. </p>

<p>Here are some webpages for you to read. If you are considering doing all the things to be self-supporting, please call the Registrar’s Office FIRST and ask. They won’t steer you wrong. </p>

<p>[General</a> Requirements | Office of the Registrar](<a href=“http://registrar.unca.edu/general-requirements]General”>http://registrar.unca.edu/general-requirements)</p>

<p><a href=“http://registrar.unca.edu/sites/registrar.unca.edu/files/forms/Residency_APP_2011.pdf[/url]”>http://registrar.unca.edu/sites/registrar.unca.edu/files/forms/Residency_APP_2011.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>These quotes are from here:
[Frequently</a> Asked Questions | Office of the Registrar](<a href=“http://registrar.unca.edu/frequently-asked-questions]Frequently”>http://registrar.unca.edu/frequently-asked-questions)</p>

<p>"Yes. The law does presume that your residence is the same as that of your parent(s) or legal guardian, but this presumption may be rebutted by other evidence. All a presumption does is to allow a certain conclusion to be reached when there is no other evidence to the contrary. So, this presumption is rebuttable by a number of factors, such as the age of the individual, whether the individual is financially independent of the parents or guardian, whether the individual can demonstrate a visible means of support in order to substantiate the claim of financial independence, and other such circumstances.</p>

<p>This is because at 18, the student becomes a legal adult, and adults must establish domicile on their own by physical presence and intent, as explained earlier. The student will have to come to North Carolina, take steps to evidence his/her “domiciliary intent,” and wait 12 months before qualifying as a resident for tuition purposes."</p>

5

<p>By the way, the point is you can’t be moving there just to go to school. </p>

<p>Oh, and even if you were able to establish residency apart from your parents, financial aid would still be based on their income until you turn 24yo.</p>

6

<p>What is the matter with University of South Carolina or College of Charleston where you would pay instate costs? Just FYI…one of my kids applied to and got accepted to USC and while she didn’t attend, it WAS her second choice college. She will look at it again for grad school. </p>

<p>Clearly, you are a resident of SC…I would suggest looking instate there.</p>

7

<p>If you can talk one of your parents into establishing residence in one of those houses, it might be a go. Then again, some colleges are less strict about their instate requirements or enforcing them than others. The thing is, if they do decide to crack down just when you get nice and comfortable having gotten away with instate status for a bit, you’ll be in trouble. It’s a risk you have to assess.</p>

8

<p>One of the parents would need to move to one of those NC houses, pay taxes there, file fed income taxes as a resident.</p>

<p>Still…this STUDENT is attending a community college in SC…seems to me the universities in NC would wonder where this STUDENT resides. Clearly it is NOT NC.</p>

9

<p>The student needs to check into the local rules. I have a friend who lives in rural southeastern Illinois, near the Indiana state line. His kids attend high school in the nearest Illinois town, which is very small. However, after high school they are eligible for instate tuition at the colleges and universities in Terre Haute, Indiana, because they live in an adjacent county, even though it’s in another state.</p>

10

<p>NC resident here. When you send your transcripts for admission it will be on record attending a SC community college. On the residency form UNC (all 16 campuses use same form) they ask where you last attended school and if you paid in-state tuition at that last school. You can search for the residency form(s) online, they are in a pdf.</p>

<p>One of your parents would need to relocate to NC, show tax records, driving license NC…</p>

<p>There are numerous, specific questions on the residency forms to establish or rule out residency.</p>

<p>Another option, at least it was in the past (cannot say it is now with all the state’s budget cuts) if a student was awarded a merit award over $1000, they were awarded in-state tuition. Again this was some time ago, but could be ascertained by giving the registrar or bursar’s office or financial aid offices a phone call at your target school.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

11

<p>The rules do vary from state to state . Some states even make you wait a year before you are eligible for in-state tuition. If you decide to make a push for in-state tuition, you and your parents should change everything possible to the new address as soon as possible.</p>

12

<p>They vary from school to school within a state, so you need to find out exactly how a particular school operates in terms of in state/out of state verification and enforcement.</p>

13

<p>I linked specific information from UNC-Asheville above. The parent does not need to move <em>if</em> the student is over 18yo and self-supporting in NC for over 12 months. (And the links have all the info they check-- where car is registered, last school attended, where student works/ files taxes, who owns car the student is driving, voter registration, etc.) It is doable but not easy. Otherwise, the parent would need to move.</p>

14

<p>“If you can talk one of your parents into establishing residence in one of those houses, it might be a go”</p>

<p>In California, parent’s residence only determines kid’s residence if s/he is less than 18 when parent moves. Different rules for minors.</p>

<p>From the FAQ link above;</p>

<p>"For minors (students under 18) whose parent(s) move to North Carolina – If a parent comes to North Carolina ahead of the family and establishes domicile while a spouse and children remain behind to sell the house, finish out the school year, etc., it can be difficult to determine the minor child’s domicile. Following are some of the factors that are taken into account in making a residency determination for such students:</p>

<p>the extent to which the spouse has begun the process of moving to North Carolina;
what percentage of the child’s financial support is contributed by each parent;
by whom and where the child is claimed as a dependent for tax purposes;
how soon the child will turn 18;
which parent the child is living with; and
whether there are strong incentives for the child to remain in his/her previous home state after both parents have moved to North Carolina.
However, if both parents move to North Carolina and establish domicile before the minor turns 18, the student’s domicile automatically becomes North Carolina, even though the child may not be physically present in North Carolina for the 12 month period immediately proceeding the beginning of the term in which they seek to enroll in a North Carolina institution of higher education.</p>

<p>For students 18 and over whose parent(s) move to North Carolina – When parents move to North Carolina after the student turns 18, the student does not automatically acquire North Carolina domicile. This is because at 18, the student becomes a legal adult, and adults must establish domicile on their own by physical presence and intent, as explained earlier. The student will have to come to North Carolina, take steps to evidence his/her “domiciliary intent,” and wait 12 months before qualifying as a resident for tuition purposes"</p>

15

<p>I’m sort of in the same situation as you are, but am from California looking for instate residency at a UC. Even though I have lived here all my life and was born here, I don’t qualify for instate residency because my parents are no longer around… One of my parents passed away while the I have no idea about the other one. Since I’m 18 before I go to college, I’m not able to take the residency of the last living parent… I guess all I can do is AB540 and hopefully qualify for more grants. Ridiculous…</p>

16

<p>I thought if you went HS for a few years in California you got residency for tuition in California. Is that AB 540? What’s wrong with that?</p>

17

<p>The problem with that is I no longer qualify for Cal Grant which is a huge chunk of money…</p>

18

<p>Never lie. No matter what, never lie or “fib” about residency. It is a tempting but easily sprung trap. For starters, thousands of dollars of fees are at stake. Don’t kid yourself. The admissions office and the financial aid office will have some filters up that will flag applicants whose high school transcript come from out of state zip codes. </p>

<p>I cannot begin to tell you how many ways it is possible to document a person’s high school residency status. It just takes awhile. So, there you are, happily beavering away at your college classes and BOOM, here comes the email that says they’ve figured out that you really are an out of state student. At this point the options are:
a) you get booted from school on an honors violation (you fibbed to them)
or
b) They let you stay but you don’t get to register for next term’s classes until you’ve paid up on all those outstanding past out of state fees (or don’t get to collect your diploma). </p>

<p>No winning here. Believe me, administrators have no sense of humor or tolerance on these issues. </p>

<p>So pick a campus you can afford. Or be such a great candidate that the school waives out of state fees (that happens, particularly for certain athletes or top scholars). Otherwise prepare to pay.</p>