Florida residency for college

[Kingdome8]

Not sure if any one knows this, but.
My kids want to go to UCF for college especially after learning from a cast member of free tuition while working part time at disney

Question is can I claim residency by buying a second home there? Or would I physically have to live there for a year? Wondering if anyone has any experience or thought about this.

Thanks.

 

[siren0119]

The colleges have residency requirements listed on their own websites, I checked out the one at UCF and they specifically state that it must be a "bona fide domicile" - meaning you must actually live there, and not just have a property for the purpose of establishing a Florida address. The UCF site also clearly states that students who depend on out-of-state parents for support are considered residents of their parents' home state.

 

[Eeyore daily]

I think you have to have actually lived here for at least a year prior to the start of classes to qualify for residency. At least at the colleges I looked at stated that.

 

[starry_solo]

According to the Newsweek Article, a student must reside in Florida for 12 months to be considered a resident

 

[Kingdome8]

According to the Newsweek Article, a student must reside in Florida for 12 months to be considered a resident

Or parent right?

 

[siren0119]

Or parent right?

The student must have legal ties to Florida. Generally that means if they are supported by the parent, their parent(s) are also legally tied to Florida, but if the Student lives in another state and one parent lives in FL, the student would have to have 12 months of full residency (including getting a drivers license there and having it as their primary residence) before they would be eligible for instate tuition.

I'm not sure if that's what you're asking - but if you were thinking of moving to FL while the student lives in another state, that wouldn't work.

 

[Daniela Rose]

I am a New Yorker and went to U of Florida. Granted this was, cough cough, some time ago, my parents originally thought they would send me for a year and then I would become a Florida resident so I can get instate tuition. I got a Florida license, changed the tags on my car, etc etc. BUT it actually wasn’t worth it bc once I became a resident after living there for the year they couldn’t claim me as a dependent, I’d have to get my own health insurance, etc etc and a bunch of other reasons. Not really sure what they were but we never ended up doing it.

 

[starry_solo]

From UCF's website:
https://apply.ucf.edu/forms/residency/basicinfo
A Florida "resident for tuition purposes" is a person who has, or a dependent person whose parent or legal guardian has, established and maintained legal residency in Florida for at least twelve (12) consecutive months preceding the first day of classes of the term for which Florida residency is sought.

• Residence in Florida must be a bona fide domicile rather than for the purpose of maintaining a residence incident to enrollment at an institution of higher education.
• To qualify as a Florida resident for tuition purposes, you must be a U.S. citizen, a foreign national in a nonimmigrant visa classification that grants you the legal ability to establish a bona fide domicile in the United States, a permanent resident alien, parolee, asylee, Cuban-Haitian entrant, legal alien granted indefinite stay by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or other qualified alien as defined under federal law. Other persons not meeting the twelve-month legal residence requirements may be classified as Florida residents for tuition purposes only if they fall within one of the limited special categories authorized by the Florida Legislature pursuant to section 1009.21, Florida Statutes (see "Qualification by Exception" below). All other persons are ineligible for classification as a Florida "resident for tuition purposes."
• Living in or attending school in Florida will not, in itself, establish legal residence. Students who depend upon out-of-state parents for support are presumed to be legal residents of the same state as their parents.
• Residency for tuition purposes requires the establishment of legal ties to the state of Florida. Students must verify that they have broken ties to other states if the student or, in the case for dependent students, his or her parent has moved from another state.

So, basically the OP and the child have to move to Florida 12 months prior to qualifying for in-state tuition.

 

[ClapYourHands]

From UCF's website:
https://apply.ucf.edu/forms/residency/basicinfo
A Florida "resident for tuition purposes" is a person who has, or a dependent person whose parent or legal guardian has, established and maintained legal residency in Florida for at least twelve (12) consecutive months preceding the first day of classes of the term for which Florida residency is sought.

• Residence in Florida must be a bona fide domicile rather than for the purpose of maintaining a residence incident to enrollment at an institution of higher education.
• To qualify as a Florida resident for tuition purposes, you must be a U.S. citizen, a foreign national in a nonimmigrant visa classification that grants you the legal ability to establish a bona fide domicile in the United States, a permanent resident alien, parolee, asylee, Cuban-Haitian entrant, legal alien granted indefinite stay by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or other qualified alien as defined under federal law. Other persons not meeting the twelve-month legal residence requirements may be classified as Florida residents for tuition purposes only if they fall within one of the limited special categories authorized by the Florida Legislature pursuant to section 1009.21, Florida Statutes (see "Qualification by Exception" below). All other persons are ineligible for classification as a Florida "resident for tuition purposes."
• Living in or attending school in Florida will not, in itself, establish legal residence. Students who depend upon out-of-state parents for support are presumed to be legal residents of the same state as their parents.
• Residency for tuition purposes requires the establishment of legal ties to the state of Florida. Students must verify that they have broken ties to other states if the student or, in the case for dependent students, his or her parent has moved from another state.

So, basically the OP and the child have to move to Florida 12 months prior to qualifying for in-state tuition.

From this, I take it that if a parent or legal guardian is a Florida resident for 12 months prior to enrollment, the student doesn't have to reside there. For example, parents may be divorced or separated, but if one lives in Florida, the dependent would be eligible for in-state tuition.

 

[luvavacation]

A few years ago we went through this exact situation.

We had the opportunity to move from the north to Florida, and found a house. Closed on our Florida house in July 4 years ago. Paid all utilities and taxes for the FL house while we prepared to move from another state.

Did the big move 6 months later.

My college student finished her semester up north in December, then took off one semester and worked in FL after our move while waiting for the application to UCF for the fall semester to be processed.

In order to prove residency for UCF, I had to provide closing documents on the house, paperwork that showed us paying the utilities, insurance and taxes, and our driver's licenses for FL (date didn't seem to matter on those, just that we had FL licenses). We were approved for residency, but I believe the cut-off was July 31 of the previous year to be accepted for residency.

If you have a college student that is already at a college in a different state, be prepared for them to repeat many of the classes they already completed once they transfer to UCF. My daughter had to repeat almost a year's worth of classes for her education major. If we had known the hoops she had to go through to continue her education in FL, she would have stayed at her previous college since she only had 3 more semesters to graduation. I don't know if all the majors at UCF are this way, but we were very surprised at how many repeat classes she had to take that UCF would not accept from her previous school.

Also, depending on the college, if are a college student at a non-Florida school, you might be surprised by how tough it is to get into the classes needed for the major at UCF. We found that some classes that were completed in one semester up north were spread out over 2 semesters at UCF, and those classes were not offered multiple times in a semester, but rather continued into the next semester. So, if you didn't take section 1 in fall semester, you had to wait until the next fall semester to take it. This was very surprising considering how large UCF is. It also explains why many students don't finish UCF in 4 years.

The other thing we noticed was that in-state tuition at UCF was much less than in-state tuition in our former state! However, housing for the college student was more expensive. Much more expensive. You pay one way or the other!

I am not sure how any of this will work regarding tuition while working at Disney. Maybe someone else will have more information in that regard.

Good luck, I hope you find what works best for your college student!

 

[mamapenguin]

A few years ago we went through this exact situation.

We had the opportunity to move from the north to Florida, and found a house. Closed on our Florida house in July 4 years ago. Paid all utilities and taxes for the FL house while we prepared to move from another state.

Did the big move 6 months later.

My college student finished her semester up north in December, then took off one semester and worked in FL after our move while waiting for the application to UCF for the fall semester to be processed.

In order to prove residency for UCF, I had to provide closing documents on the house, paperwork that showed us paying the utilities, insurance and taxes, and our driver's licenses for FL (date didn't seem to matter on those, just that we had FL licenses). We were approved for residency, but I believe the cut-off was July 31 of the previous year to be accepted for residency.

If you have a college student that is already at a college in a different state, be prepared for them to repeat many of the classes they already completed once they transfer to UCF. My daughter had to repeat almost a year's worth of classes for her education major. If we had known the hoops she had to go through to continue her education in FL, she would have stayed at her previous college since she only had 3 more semesters to graduation. I don't know if all the majors at UCF are this way, but we were very surprised at how many repeat classes she had to take that UCF would not accept from her previous school.

Also, depending on the college, if are a college student at a non-Florida school, you might be surprised by how tough it is to get into the classes needed for the major at UCF. We found that some classes that were completed in one semester up north were spread out over 2 semesters at UCF, and those classes were not offered multiple times in a semester, but rather continued into the next semester. So, if you didn't take section 1 in fall semester, you had to wait until the next fall semester to take it. This was very surprising considering how large UCF is. It also explains why many students don't finish UCF in 4 years.

The other thing we noticed was that in-state tuition at UCF was much less than in-state tuition in our former state! However, housing for the college student was more expensive. Much more expensive. You pay one way or the other!

I am not sure how any of this will work regarding tuition while working at Disney. Maybe someone else will have more information in that regard.

Good luck, I hope you find what works best for your college student!

My nephew graduated from there. He’s super smart and it did take him an extra year, because getting the classes you need when you need them is nearly impossible. The kids call UCF (U Can’t Finish)

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

If you have a college student that is already at a college in a different state, be prepared for them to repeat many of the classes they already completed once they transfer to UCF. My daughter had to repeat almost a year's worth of classes for her education major. If we had known the hoops she had to go through to continue her education in FL, she would have stayed at her previous college since she only had 3 more semesters to graduation. I don't know if all the majors at UCF are this way, but we were very surprised at how many repeat classes she had to take that UCF would not accept from her previous school.

This is the case at every college though.

Usually there's more leeway with colleges within the same state in a sense of reciprocity but not always. You always have to check which classes actually transfer over whenever you switch from one college to another. Even community college to 4-year college; for instance at my alma mater all community college courses transfer at a lower credit level if they transfer over to begin with.

If you think about this it does make sense. The courses you take need to be considered equal in terms of education given among other things. Some courses may be too specific that they don't translate well to another school. But it can be an annoying part when so little of the courses transfer over or what one may consider more a basic course doesn't transfer or you took a course that was worth 5 credits at your school but the school you transfer to only counts it as 3 credits.

There should be a webpage on one's school website to check not only how the credits transfer (in terms of how many they are worth) and what would transfer. Here's my alma mater's for example: https://credittransfer.ku.edu/?f=core&f=subject&f=title&l=all&m=0&o=0&pp=50&q=&s= I assume UCF has something similar.

Sorry for your daughter's case that really sucks having to redo a lot

 

[MrsPete]

I don't know anything about Florida residency, but NC students are required to get a "residency number" from the RDS -- Residency Determination Service. This wasn't a thing for my oldest child who graduated /applied to college in 2012, but they came up with it before my youngest child finished high school some three years later. As a part of your college application, you must obtain this number, and it's something that "sticks with you" throughout your college years -- you don't have to repeat the process each year.

Details, as I remember them from a couple years ago -- it was quite intrusive, I thought:

- You apply for the RDS number online, and it takes a couple days to be processed.
- They want to know about student's and parents' birthplace, residence, workplace.
- They want to know where student's and parents' cars are registered.
- They want to know in what state students and parents file their taxes.
- They want to know where /when everyone was born and how long you've been here or there /if you're all citizens.

Won't share this information with the RDS? Then you're an out-of-state student and screw you. Seriously, colleges are shutting the door tight on this I'll-live-in-the-state-just-a-while-and-become-a-resident thing.

Consider, too, that tuition is only a portion of what college costs. Fees are just as much as tuition, and books can easily run hundreds per semester. If you were to buy a condo near their college /Disney, that'd take care of their housing, but you'd still have transportation costs between their real home and school. Even if you could pull this off, I don't think you'd "win" in the overall cost game -- not if the free tuition is goal.

 

[floridafam]

UCF is really crowded and housing is an issue. Not sure I’d go through all the trouble.

 

[floridafam]

Any chance your kids would qualify for the National Merit scholarship? If so, the Benecquisto Scholarship is now open to out of state students and that would take care of a huge chunk of the cost.

 

[thiabelle]

Speaking from experience (DD is a freshman at UF)- your child does not have to live in FL for a year. My DD graduated from a PA high school. There is a residency affidavit that all FL colleges require (at least the public ones). We bought our house at the end of DD's freshman year and my DH immediately began the process of becoming a FL resident. The affidavit did ask for dates on driver's license and voting registration. FSU took our affidavit and supporting scanned documents with no problem. Boop- instate. UF was more of a chore- The 90 pages of our taxes was fun to scan. In the end though she was considered instate. We were lucky though- if they hadn't given us the instate tuition she had received a scholarship that would have taken care of the first $20,000 per year. For us- the difference in cost was significant when comparing state universities in PA and FL. PA still hasn't recovered from the funding cuts in the mid 2000's. Thanks Corbett. We would have paid about $25,000 in state at Indiana University of PA or $28,000 out of state at UF. No brainer.

 

[Mom24Princesses]

It is very similar in most states with popular schools. My oldest was accepted/awarded a full ride to UNC Chapel Hill for grad school and the school covered “out-of-state costs” the first year of the 3 year program. She HAD to establish NC residency before the first day of class SO THAT A YEAR LATER the school covered her as an in-state student. BYW she now teaches at UCF!