<p>I just recently got to calculating my cost of attendance and the numbers are kind of disturbing. I am thinking of going to either UT Austin or Texas A&M and I would be an OOS student for the first year. My parents would pay for the first year but after that I am on my own and I have to afford 25k a year. Should I get a part time job all four years? How much will that help? Should I just take out student loans. O and I am going into engineering, I heard I get paid for working internships. Is this true?
If anyone has any advice on how to keep my expenses low that would be helpful as well. I think I may live off campus my Soph to Senior year and get a sportbike for transportation.
Should I avoid these universities and go somewhere cheap and boring?</p>
<p>Also how much can I expect to get in Grants or scholarships coming from a middle class family?</p>
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<p>…why won’t you be oos for your 2nd year?</p>
<p>You don’t just automatically get residency in any state just because you’re a college student there.</p>
<p>Will I have to pay it two years. I understand it is not automatic residency but I thought I could claim residency after one year.</p>
<p>No. That’s not going to happen.
[Establishing</a> Residency | Be a Longhorn](<a href=“http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/residency/establishing]Establishing”>http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/residency/establishing)</p>
<p>Essentially, you would have to legally emancipate yourself from your parents. Generally speaking you’re SOL with oos residencies until you are 25.</p>
<p>What state are you from? I’m sure your state has plenty of good universities if you can’t afford school as you have shown.</p>
<p>Edit:
The “gainful employment” means you have to be making enough money to cover half of your tuition expenses. You’re not going to get that from the jobs you’re probably looking at (or could even get). On top of that, that job would have to be held for 12 months consecutively.</p>
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That’s not true. Not in the state of Texas, anyway. All that’s required is that
- his parents do not claim him as a dependent on their federal tax return
- he is “gainfully employed,” which can be met by working 20 hours a week (look at the definition of gainful employment again!)
- he lives in Texas for 12 consecutive months</p>
<p>It seems that Texas makes it easier than most states to qualify for in-state tuition independently of the domicile of one’s parents.</p>
<p>^While that is true (I misread that “or” as an “and”, whoops), the chance of the OP meeting this requirement is small. Either way, the OP isn’t going to make the requirement until the 3rd year at the earliest.</p>
<p>If the OP could make this requirement, IMHO it would be very foolish to do so.</p>
<p>1) He/she will have to be working at least 20 hours a week while attending school full time. While some people are capable of this, a lot of people would not be able to keep up with their school work (also of note, the OP is looking into engineering, which is chock full of weeder classes the first 2 years).</p>
<p>2) He/she will have to keep said job for a year to prove it was with the intent to establish residency. It means no summer internships/research in engineering.</p>
<p>3) The OP appears to be from California. He/she has a HUGE range of UC’s, CSU’s, and other state schools that would provide a great education. If money is an issue (which it clearly seems to be), why go through all the trouble getting Texas residency?</p>
<p>Last note: if the parents are paying the first year, you can sure bet they’re claiming the OP as a dependent at least in that first year. So that can easily put a kink in things.</p>
<p>Edit: I went to high school in Louisiana. I have several friends who went to Texas colleges. It is NOT easy to gain residency at all. And yes, I have several who have tried. They all failed at doing so.</p>
<p>jonf123456, there are various EFC calculators online that might help you estimate how much financial aid you might be eligible for. I’d recommend the ones by Collegeboard. Important: if you work the requisite 20 hours per week in your first year, that will significantly reduce your financial aid eligibility in the second year because your income is assumed constant.</p>
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Why? It only takes 12 months of continuous presence AND it only needs to be documented by the 12th day of classes. If he moves there the summer before college and gets settled with a job before the school year starts, he should have more than enough time to establish residency for his second year.</p>
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You can’t get real engineering internship anyway after your first year.</p>
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Not necessarily. That part should be easy to negotiate with his parents.</p>
<p>By the way, I am not saying that this plan sounds like a good idea. I am only saying that it sounds possible to go through with it based on the requirements stated online.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice, as brutal as it may be. I am going into petroleum eng which is not offered in ca. I will look it up for myself. So will I be a resident on my third year or second?</p>
<p>20 hours is not to bad. Should my parents claim me as dependent this year?</p>
<p>It’s probably better for them tax-wise to claim you as a dependent this year. Just make sure that they don’t claim you after you move to Texas. </p>
<p>A bit of practical advise: if you can take two transferable classes (e.g. calculus 1+2 or physics 1+2) cheaply at a community college the summer before you head to college, you can take a reduced course load in your first year without falling behind on the curriculum. That might make it easier to juggle 20 hours of work alongside academics.</p>
<p>One more thing: you’ll have to document that you came to Texas with the intent to make it your permanent home. Academic departments urge their graduate students to get a TX driver’s license, register to vote in TX and open a bank account in TX as soon as they get there for that purposes. Also, don’t forget to file TX state income taxes.</p>
<p>It cannot be that insanely difficult to establish residency for tuition purposes in Texas. Graduate students (even those under 25) do it all the time and UT’s residency policy does not distinguish between undergraduate and graduate students.</p>
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Unless you go early and get a job that summer (which could be complicated housing-wise), you’re looking at year 3.</p>
<p>If I may ask, why are you against doing ChemE undergrad? You could concentrate in petro.</p>
<p>If you are serious about this (and adamantly against chemE), also look into LSU - they have a fantastic PetroE program.</p>
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I disagree on both your points. First, his 12 months of residence don’t need to be met until the “census date” on the 12th day of classes. So he would have sufficient time even if he didn’t move there until the beginning of classes. Second, finding temporary housing off campus should be no problem at all. There are plenty of graduate students in the area who will be gone for parts of the summer and want to sublet their apartment.</p>
<p>In fact, he would probably want to get there early anyway to find a job. Since jobs that hinge on his student status (e.g. work-study) do not qualify as “gainful employment”, he would probably have to look for a job off campus. I would do that before the school year starts.</p>
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That’s why I said “unless he moves there early.” The chances of nabbing a job in 12 days are not all that high, realistically speaking. The housing issue wasn’t finding housing so much as how the OP will pay for it (in that I don’t quite understand his situation of why the parents will completely foot the bill for year one, but then completely cut him off after that - would they pay for that apartment’s rent?).
You can claim that he’ll have a job, but that’s not a guaranteed thing.</p>
<p>Also of note - health insurance? IF the parents have the OP under their plan, they have to claim him as a dependent. That’s a pretty big if, but could put a kink in his plan (and I’d say it would be very foolish to forgo a parents health insurance just to get residency in another state).</p>
<p>Why do they <em>have</em> to claim him as a dependent on their taxes? Why does the IRS care whose health insurance he’s covered under? Or why does the health insurance company care about their taxes? If there’s some legal situation that we are missing, please be more explicit so that the OP knows what he’s dealing with. </p>
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A room in Austin is… $400 a month? Something tells me that the OP could find a way to make this work even if his were parents were unwilling to help. You are trying to create problems where there are none.</p>
<p>Not trying to create problems - I’m just pointing out where problems /might/ arise so that the OP is aware. No harm can come of that. Chill out.</p>
<p>If the OP is indeed serious about this, then it’s far better to point out the difficulties he may face than go into it with an attitude of “oh boy this is going to be so easy to get reduced tuition!”</p>
<p>Here’s another one for example - say he’s working a job, and gets ill, family death, whatever. He’s only part time, and the employer decides to be a terrible person and fire him for missing work.<br>
Not saying it would happen, by any means, but it’s something the OP should be aware of that could happen… and royally muck up declaring residency.</p>
<p>As I have already said, I have friends who tried to get residency in Texas. It’s not as easy as you’re trying to make it seem.</p>
<p>OP, how do you plan on making 25k a year while attending college full time? It just doesn’t sound like it’s going to happen.</p>