I attend high school at a residential boarding school in Texas. My parents are divorced and have dual custody of me, which means that I live with both equally. My mother lives in a rural community in Texas. My father lives in Alaska. When applying for colleges, should I put down that I live in Texas? I do spend more time here as I go to school here. Would it be wrong to say that I live in Alaska as one of my custodial parent’s residence is in Alaska? It would likely give me a geographic diversity advantage. Is this suspicious at all to college admissions committees? I mean, I am not lying.
You may want to investigate carefully the rules in both states regarding residency for in-state tuition at their state schools and the rules for which parent is your custodial parent for FAFSA purposes.
Best to put down the state of residence used for tax purposes where you are claimed as a dependent for taxes.
And you can also look to where you spend the most time.
Or just ask yourself - Do I people “ I am going home” when going to see your mom as an example. And other times say “I am going to see or be with my dad” in Alaska for a few weeks?
It’s not your school. It’s either parents home.
But you will be looked at compared to the kids in your school and not the generic kid from Alaska.
But if the final cut includes having a kid from Alaska on the stat sheet, it can help…
But I would Just go with the truth as you see it. And be honest above all other things. You know the difference and the truth.
I am sure it is not Texas where you go to school. So if you ar worried about UT ask your boarding school counselors. You’re not the first student with this issue.
Start by finding out how much your parents are ready, willing, and able to pay for college.
When you know that, you will know whether or not you will need to limit yourself to public universities in a state where you qualify as an in-state resident, to colleges and universities that only use the FAFSA for financial aid determination, or to places that will give you a whomping lot of automatic merit-based aid.
Because your parents live in two different state, there is the possibility that you might be considered an in-state resident in both places for tuition and fees purposes. How do you feel about studying in Alaska?
For the FAFSA, you are dependent on the parent who you spend the most time with. If your time is truly divided equally, then the parent who pays the most for your upkeep is the one you are dependent on. If one of your parents has remarried, that spouse’s financial information is also necessary for the FAFSA. So if one of your parents has a much better financial situation than the other, you can spend one day more with the relatively poorer parent and use that parent for your FAFSA. In that case, you would also use that parent’s address as your permanent address.
Dependency for financial aid purposes and dependency for tax purposes are two different things. To get a better understanding about how financial aid might work in your situation, spend some time in the Financial Aid forum. Better yet, send your parents there too.
Is this a special boarding school? I cannot imagine in any world where you would be advised to choose AK as instate over Tx? No geographic diversity would be a bonus over have UT in your back pocket (as it seems you are a good student). There is literally no advantage to imagining AK is your state of residence. Leverage your school advising. That is what your parents pay for assuming this is an academic boarding school.
I am not arguing with you, you’re probably right, but here is more info regarding my situation that might help assess the situation better.
I have really strong stats and ECs and even if I applied to UT Austin as an out of state resident, I would probably get in. Applying as an in-state resident does not actually help me at all (in terms of admissions) because my school does rank and I cannot benefit from the auto admission for top 6% of Texas State Schools.
In terms of financing UT, both of my parents were in the military so I get government benefits when it comes to paying for school - although I am not particularly wealthy, this assistance makes paying for school (whether in-state or out) a small concern.
I am likely wrong (and correct me if I am) but the only positive I see of being a Texas resident would be in-state tuition to UT Austin vs out-of-state tuition, which because of my family’s benefits, is not a huge problem to me.
What I AM concerned about is admission to competitive private schools. I have noticed that competitive private schools tend to want students from as many states as possible. Alaska has less competitive students than Texas, and having a student with my stats might be more impressive to adcom if I am viewed as being “from Alaska” than “from Texas”. This is specifically true in the case of my top choice, Rice, which happens to be in Texas. They are seeking applicants from outside of Texas. Being “from Texas” might put me at a disadvantage. Even at other places than Rice, I still think Alaskan applicants are seen as more geographically diverse than Texan.
At private schools, tuition isn’t specific for applicant’s state, and I would likely be providing both of my parents’ financial information anyway (even though they are divorced private schools almost always require both - unlike FAFSA as mentioned in an above response^^).
As I said, I am really not knowledgable about this. That’s why I am asking. I was just wondering if you still think the same advice applies now that I have provided some additional information.
Thanks!
Calling @ChoatieMom for help in this one.
I am pretty sure you cannot use your boarding school address for college purposes or residency.
I also believe that selective private schools will review your application in light of your school and others in your type of school.
Not entirely sure if they will give a geographic preference to a student at a boarding school.
That’s why I am calling in the big guns!
(Small joke as choatiemoms son is a boarding school grad who goes to an elite service academy)
I second @ucbalumnus’s advice here. Boarding school does not determine residency for a minor.
I have really strong stats and ECs and even if I applied to UT Austin as an out of state resident, I would probably get in<<<
OK then LOL. Go you.
“I have really strong stats and ECs and even if I applied to UT Austin as an out of state resident, I would probably get in. ”
You realize there is only 10% of the pool available for OOS and that stats are way higher than average UT for this pool? We’ve seen some people with outstanding applications rejected OOS for UTA here. Just saying. In state (with really strong stats) still gives you a massive application advantage even if you’re not an auto-admit.
Does OP even want to go to UT, though? If it’s just a safety school for him/her, I wouldn’t worry about being a Texas resident just for that purpose. Especially for a smart student who can pay, there’s many other schools outside of either TX or AK that they could go to.
From what I know, the boarding school situtation doesn’t matter (although I think it might for other state-based things, like possibly National Merit IIRC?). So your problem is really about the joint custody, which colleges should know how to handle because there’s lots of students who live equally with both parents. Maybe send a few of your top choices an email and ask.
Correct. However, while the BS is in TX, so is the mom. But I also believe that the OP has a misunderstanding about the importance (more like the lack thereof) of geographical diversity for most colleges. If s/he gets rejected, I highly doubt that the reason is s/he listed TX instead of AK as the permanent address.
That said, I agree with @happymomof1
Residency is considered in the state where you spend most days of the year. I’m assuming if you attend school here and your custodial parent lives here then you spend 75% of the time here in Texas. However, you can call UT and inquire about their guidelines.
UT, though? If it’s just a safety school for him/her<<<<<<<<<<<
As his school doesn’t rank, it isn’t a safety for him at all. In state, out of state, whatever. It is however, a nice app option as his instate flagship vs that being U of Alaska. I think OP needs to get the $$ situation clarified though. He seems to think money is no issue, so will look like a full pay anywhere kid?
Chances are that Rice is extremely familiar with your TX boarding school. You aren’t likely to get a geographical bonus for claiming AK as your primary residence. That bonus will almost certainly be reserved for kids applying from schools in AK.
If Rice is your target, go have a nice long conversation with your school’s college placement team, and get their recommendations about packaging yourself for Rice.
@sybylia, I get special government assistance to US public schools (in-state public schools or out of state public schools) because my parents were in the military. Paying for public schools is not a huge issue.
I will likely receive need-based aid for private schools. But, I do not know how much of a difference it will make about who I say I live with when it comes to financial aid for private schools, as they usually make aid judgments based off of both parents income, not just custodial.
However, after reading through all of these responses, I will probably just end up putting that I live at my mother’s home in Texas. She does make less money anyways so maybe this will end up helping me with finances even though they will likely request my dad’s financial info too. Geographic diversity does not seem to be as big of a factor as I thought, and saying I am from Texas will avoid confusion with the admissions committee.
Also, regarding me saying I am likely to get into UT Austin, I really didn’t mean to come off as arrogant. Even though my school doesn’t rank and we do not benefit from auto admission, the acceptance rate to UT Auston from students at my school is 70%+, and I am making an educated guess that I am towards the top 20% of my class (if ranking were to exist).
Thanks to everyone for your help! Where I go to school, not many of my peers have divorced parents, and I am a first-generation college student (also an anomaly where I come from). I feel so uneducated about so many different aspects of college admissions, and it makes it even more confusing having divorced parents.
Does that mean that your tuition cost for UT would be exactly the same amount, whether you are in-state or out-of-state for tuition purposes? That might change some of the responses.
Does your school have Naviance? If so, that should give you a good picture of admissions to Rice from your school. If Rice is your number one school, demonstrate lots of interest, visit, interview and apply ED.
Many students do go to their safety schools. The safety school should be carefully chosen to be one that is desirable to the student, as well as automatic admission and automatic affordability (although UT Austin without top 6% in-state would not be a safety, though some other Texas publics may be). Soon will be the season when some students who got affordable admissions only to their safeties have meltdowns because they did not get into their all-reach list of dream schools or found them to be too expensive.
@Nrdsb4 Almost, yes. Either way my tuition is covered. I will have to pay room and board no matter what. My mom’s EFC is less than room and board at UT, but considering UT is not known for meeting close to full financial need, I imagine the scholarship towards room and board would be pretty insignificant - MAXIMUM 3000 a year…