<p>I want to transfer to University of Knoxville. I live in MS, literally less than five minutes away from the TN border. I have talked to UTK about this and they have told me it is not enough to get in-state.</p>
<p>Here's where the unique situation comes in: My family owns a cabin in TN, a residence we have owned for over nine years. On top of that, both of my parents' jobs are in TN, when I was in high school I attended it in TN, every single job I've had was in TN.</p>
<p>Is there anyway this could make me eligiable for in-state tuition? If so, how would I go about getting it?</p>
<p>Be careful here. I used to check fishing licenses as a job. People would use a local cabin as their “residence” so that they could save a few bucks on the fishing license (non residents paid about 10 bucks more). </p>
<p>It was ridiculously easy to catch the cheaters. You have no idea how many ways! For instance, if I were in the U Knoxville Admissions office, I would be handling 10,000 applications a year – and I would know every high school in the state. So, when an application comes in with a transcript from “Happy High” with a student having a home zip code of XXXXX, I would immediately go “huh? That’s not a Kentucky zip code.” And I would pick up the phone and call the school – to learn that “Steve Smith graduated from here in 2009 and here is his parent’s address and phone number.” Busted. (You say you went to a TN high school – but did you graduate from there? Was your home of record in TN?). </p>
<p>There are thousands of dollars at stake here. You think that the Admissions office isn’t aware of that?</p>
<p>Any time ANY information goes across the transom you could be busted. Transcript, information from your doctor’s office, . . . anything. </p>
<p>It is STUPID easy to catch a kid in this situation. Don’t do it. Not only could you be suspended, you would have a reputation of being a liar all of your life. Move to TN and work until you are a resident or pay the bill LIKE YOU SHOULD.</p>
<p>If not, unless you’re at least 24 and willing to move to the cabin for a year, or your major is not available in your home state and falls within the Academic Common Market offerings at UTK, you’re pretty much stuck paying OOS rates. It’s tough, but the people in your own state are willing/able to subsidize your education and the people of Tennesse are not. Lots of schools offer instate rates to border county kids, so I think the fact that UT does not sends a pretty clear message.</p>
<p>One of the easiest ways to bust a “summer cabin” resident is to do a phone call to the local delivery guy (Fed ex, UPS, whatever). All the driver has to say is “naw, I never deliver there” or “yeah, sometimes in the summer” and we are on our way to knowing we have a fraud. </p>
<p>Another red flag is when the applicant doesn’t provide a driver’s license number – He doesn’t because it is from another state – so anytime there is a spot where most kids put down their driver’s license and you don’t . . . it will be reviewed. </p>
<p>Then there’s the old girl network (secretarial staff). “Barbara” at UT calls “Amanda” at your last college and simply asks what your address of record has been. They do these sorts of calls all the time. They probably know each others dachsund and grand baby names. </p>
<p>And, of course, there are power bills. It is easy enough to verify that power to the cabin is used on weekends and summers and not year around. </p>
<p>I used to go all these sorts of routes – over a $10 license fee. This was before the internet. It would take me. . . about a day . . . to figure out how to check residencies in the modern era. Do NOT DO THIS. Please. It’s tempting. So is robbing banks. Have some chocolate and read the TN workers wanted ads instead. SO MUCH BETTER a path to take.</p>
<p>If your parents live in a state other than TN, YOU (the student) are a resident of that OTHER state…and I think you already knew that but hoped there was some sort of loophole. There isn’t.</p>
<p>Answer all questions truthfully and see what happens. Some things aren’t always as clear cut as they seem - knew a student who lived in state X, went to school and graduated from high school in state X, parents income came from business based in another state (where taxes were paid on income). College in state X said student was “out of state” - even though student and parents had never lived in state where business was based.</p>
<p>I woulld think that if you pay Tenessee real estate taxes then you are eligilble to recieve the benefits of living in Tenessee. Plain and simple.</p>
<p>milkandsugar…lots of folks own vacation homes in various places. Many have vacation homes in places like North Carolina or Michigan or Massachusetts or Maine or Florida. Just because you own vacation real estate does NOT mean you meet the acid test for instate residency in a state. In fact, check the websites and you will see that there are multiple criteria the most notable being that your permanent address is where you claim you reside. Vacation homes are seldom the permanent address…they are used for vacations. </p>
<p>Students should check the websites of the schools where they plan to apply. I have heard that owning real estate in Texas, for example, will qualify you for instate residency but you must also change your drivers license, register to vote and otherwise declare you intention to stay in Texas to be considered for instate tuition by owning property.</p>
<p>In many, if not most, states…the place of residency is where the PARENTS reside most of the time. It’s where the parents have declared their residency to be.</p>