SC/NC residency question on tuition...

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Hi all! I'm really leaning towards moving to Charlotte to go to nursing school. I am a little familiar with the area- I lived in Columbia for a while so I drove to Charlotte every so often.

I am thinking about getting an apartment in Rock Hill/Fort Mill SC since I hear it is cheaper and cleaner than most of Charlotte (well the affordable parts anyway).

Will I have to pay out of state tuition if I reside right across the border?

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As I understand it (and I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong), you have to reside physically in North Carolina for twelve months in order to qualify for in-state tuition (i.e., you don't qualify until you've been here a year). There is so much demand for NC public universities that the state has even started "cracking down" on students from other states who move in with their grandparents in order to qualify for in-state tuition -- that no longer "counts."

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Yikes. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to deal with it.

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Hi elkpark,

How can it no longer count if they live with grandparents? Are you saying they have to have worked in that year in NC, paid some sort of taxes, gotten a drivers license, or registered to vote?

Seems to me if you live with someone for a year then you are a resident. Besides, I thought NC had some sort of law that you were a resident after 90 days of living there.

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Again, if someone knows better/different, I'm happy to be corrected. My understanding, though, after reading some articles about this in the newspaper a few years ago, is that the state considers full-time students (high school and college students who are still dependent on their parents) to be, by definition, residents of their parents' home -- so, if they've lived in another state all their lives, their parents live in the other state, and they spend their senior year of high school living with their grandparents in NC (which was a very, very common practice here for a while -- again, specifically in order to qualify for NC public universities as a resident. It's not even just a matter of the difference in tuition; there are caps on how many out-of-state students the state universities can take), that doesn't make them a "resident" of North Carolina for university acceptance/tuition purposes. The practice was so common that the state changed the rules to eliminate that "loophole." For students who would be considered independent adults (supporting themselves, maintaining their own home, etc.) it would just be a matter of the one year residency requirement, I suppose.

Lots of states have a different time frame for "residency" to qualify for in-state tuition as opposed to simply being considered a resident of the state (I know that CA did many years ago, when I moved there -- again, you had to live in the state for a full year to qualify for in-state tuition). As long as you have moved there and maintain a home, pay taxes, etc., I suppose you're considered a resident, in general, from day one. But qualifying for in-state tuition is a different matter.

If you think about it, it makes sense -- since, in most cases, you go to the campus to attend school (not counting distance learning options, obviously), if all that mattered was physically being in the state, then every student would qualify for in-state tuition, and there would be no point to differentiating between in-state and out-of-state students. The point of public university education being heavily subsidized by the states (and I believe NC subsidizes it more heavily than lots of other states) is to use state money to provide an affordable education for residents of the state. IMHO, I would like to see the residency requirement be longer than just one year ...

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I understand where you are coming from Elkpark. Too bad there isn't an exception for military spouses. I haven't lived in ANY state for a full year since 2000, and that state was NC. The last college courses I took were at a NC school...but that was in 2003 I think when I moved back for a semester.

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There might be an exception for military & spouses (we're v. pro-military in NC); I don't know about that specifically. You might want to do some research on that ...

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elkpark,

I think I understand. I just know that many grandparents are raising grandchildren these days, parents have too many issues, and it seems harsh to further throw obsticles into young persons way.

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I'm sure that, if it were a legitimate situation where the grandparents were raising the kid and the kid had been living with them for some time, that would be treated differently.

The situation in NC was that it was becoming v. common for (affluent) kids from other states (from "normal," intact homes) to come live, for their senior year of high school, with their grandparents who had retired to NC, and it was purely, solely for the purpose of being able to go to NC public universities as a NC resident ... Not only was the state having to subsidize them for their college educations, it was having to pay for their senior year of high school, too! Again, it was not only to save the significant amount of $$$ on the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition, but also to get around the cap on the number of out-of-state students admitted into the UNC system. That is what the state wanted to eliminate, not situations where grandparents had had to step in and raise grandchildren because the parents were unable to, for whatever reason -- just the "entirely optional" situations in which people were taking advantage of the system.

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I understand where you are coming from Elkpark. Too bad there isn't an exception for military spouses. I haven't lived in ANY state for a full year since 2000, and that state was NC. The last college courses I took were at a NC school...but that was in 2003 I think when I moved back for a semester.

I obviously can't speak for all colleges and universities. However, in my experience as a career student:chuckle I have seen most extend residency for tuition purposes to military members and their dependents. You normally have to show a copy of your spouse's orders to get it. I know that is how it is here in NC.

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I understand where you are coming from Elkpark. Too bad there isn't an exception for military spouses. I haven't lived in ANY state for a full year since 2000, and that state was NC. The last college courses I took were at a NC school...but that was in 2003 I think when I moved back for a semester.

Actually, I think there might be an exception for military spouses, I would look into it further.

I know I'm going to be going to community college out there when I move, and from what I understood from their paperwork, I qualify for in state tuition since my fiancé is a Marine. Of course, he'll be my husband by the time I move, so that's what I mean, but I think you see my point :) I would not have known about this unless I scoured the different tuition statements on this college's website. Read the fine print, sometimes it contains pleasant surprises!

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