<p>I did not know that in order for me to become a resident of N.C., you must rent or buy an apartment/house.
So its not possible to establish residency by just living in a dorm for 12 months?
Does anybody know someone who can help me?
thanks</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure you can't establish residency at any school by just living in the dorms.</p>
<p>idonotmatch is correct. UNC has a list of several significant questions you've got to answer to establish residency. It's more than just living there; also has to do with paying taxes, etc. Go look it up on their website....it's not that straightforward....and most public U's have similar rules.</p>
<p>I vaguely remember the process from the application. It was about 12 pages long and was part of the online app. I also had to run up some supplemental information for them. They are quite strict about residency and I can't blame 'em.</p>
<p>Information regarding establishing residency can be found here:</p>
<p>Classification</a> Manual | Residency | Office of the University Registrar</p>
<p>i can work and pay my taxes and get my license, voter registration, etc but can't live in the dorms for 12 months to establish residency?</p>
<p>Who is going to be footing the bill for your family's EFC?</p>
<p>me, myself, and I.</p>
<p>We live in NC, so obviously I haven't looked into NC residency requirements. But my d. went to school in VA. We even owned a condo there, she worked there, had driver's license there, etc. We could not meet residency requirements as she didn't contribute (think it was 70%) of her support. States have to protect themselves, after all it is their residents supporting their schools.</p>
<p>my biggest fear is trying to do all this for 12 months and get rejected by the residency committee.</p>
<p>Even if you do those things and can prove that, in fact, you are financially independent (including not having your parents count you as a dependant on their tax returns), you would still have the burden of showing:</p>
<p>
[quote]
that you intend to make North Carolina a permanent home indefinitely,
rather than being in North Carolina solely to attend college
[/quote]
I am no expert, but I expect that this might be hard to establish while you are attending school.</p>
<p>Based on the financial award you indicated you received, I fail to see how the issue is that important, since it looks like your EFC is roughly the equivelent of in-state costs. If you were reclassified as in-state, your financial aid would be adjusted so that you would receive little, if any, financial aid. Maybe I am missing something.</p>
<p>thanks for the insight tyr.
Is it not enough to demonstrate that I have my driver's lisence, voter registration, etc to prove that I intend to make North Carolina a permanent home indefinitely?
If I were to be classified as in-state and INDEPENDENT, my efc would be calculated based on my earnings and assets because I'm financially independent from my parent's support.
I went to fafsa's webpage and played with the numbers to see what will be my efc if I were to be an independent student.
working @ 7.50 an hour multiply 20 hours then multiply 4 weeks times 6.5(6 months and a half) will yield $3900. Taxes will be approx. be $273.
My Available Income would be $3627.
multiply that by the assesment rate at .50 will give me an efc of $1813.5
This is what UNC will ask me to pay for my COA. EVERY YEAR I have to do a new FAFSA, so next year I will do it all again and complete it before March 1 for a guarantee of 100% FA Based NEED after subtracting my NEW independent EFC from the cost of attendance.
Anyone seems to view this as an impossible scenario?</p>
<p>So, if you anticipate having available income from earnings of $3,627, how do you see that as being financially independent? You have accounted for $3,627 of the EFC, How do you propose to pay the difference? What do you propose to do during the other 5.5 months of the year and where do you plan to do it?</p>
<p>Tyr,
every year, UNC requires every student to file a FAFSA, whether your independent or dependent.
Like I said again, if an individual submits their FAFSA and CSS before March 1 of every year, UNC will stand by their promise of meeting the financial NEED 100%.
Look, being independent means that you don't have to work 12 months consecutively and you can work part time if one desires to.</p>
<p>Danny_125,</p>
<p>The question was how you can be independent while be able to provide (by your numbers) only $3,627 of your EFC. The rest of the cost has to be paid from somewhere. Simply working does not make you financially independent, parttime or otherwise. Based on your numbers, you would obviously have to have other financial support to make up the difference between your earnings and EFC. Where will it come from?</p>
<p>The money will come from the institution, tyr.
I called them and we had a brief discussion on this topic.
To my dismay,The only way for an individual to become independent is to be 24 years of age or be financially independent. Nevertheless, the former is an instantaneous way to become independent, whereas the latter is quite convoluted with complex federal procedures.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The only way for an individual to become independent is to be 24 years of age or be financially independent
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Without the reference to age, which was not a factor, that is one of the points I have been trying to make to you.</p>
<p>this is one way to become independent.
i guess i will do this when i enter medical school.</p>
<p>danny, be careful because you can't be emancipated regardless of whether you are for instate tuition until you are 22 or maybe its 24. It is very difficult to prove the opposite. UNC is very generous in meeting 100% of demonstrated need. REMEMBER the aid package is based on their expecation of cost....your cost may be much lower by cooking, being frugal, getting a part time job or all of the above.</p>
<p>You can also buy txt books online, from other students and from half.com to save money. All of this helps. Living in a dorm is more expensive than a room elsewhere also. Although one year on campus is impt.</p>