In-State Tuition in Texas After Relocation?
Our BIG question is, how/when can our son get in-state tuition in Texas if we only just move there the summer after his high school graduation?
Your son will not be considered a Texas resident for tuition purposes until you have resided in Texas for 12 consecutive months. And, even then, if he has already enrolled at a Texas public college or university as a non-resident, he will not automatically be granted in-state status at the end of the first year. He will have to apply for it, and the determination is made on a case-by-case basis by the individual schools. If your intent to remain in Texas is clear (more on that in a minute), then your son’s reclassification is probably just a formality, but you still need to understand that it is not a sure-thing.
Once you relocate to Texas, you shouldn’t plan to move into your sister’s rumpus room and drive around on your Ohio licenses if you want the 12-month clock to start ticking right away. This website from the University of Texas provides a helpful list of things that you need to do to establish your Texas residency, and your year won’t begin without documentation that you have officially launched this process. Note, however, that residency requirements can vary at least a little bit from one public college to the next. So once your son has his eye on some options, you should research the requirements at these schools individually.
If you are fairly certain that your son will attend a public college in Texas, you might want to encourage him to take a “gap year” after he graduates from his high school in Ohio. That way, you wouldn’t get stuck paying a year of out-of-state tuition in TX, and your son wouldn’t have to petition for reclassification after starting college. Since many students opt to take a gap year anyway, even without this big incentive, this could be a wise strategy for him and … especially… for the parents who will be picking up the tab for his higher education!
Sally Rubenstone
Sally Rubenstone knows the competitive and often convoluted college admission process inside out: From the first time the topic of college comes up at the dinner table until the last duffel bag is unloaded on a dorm room floor. She is the co-author of Panicked Parents’ Guide to College Admissions; The Transfer Student’s Guide to Changing Colleges and The International Student’s Guide to Going to College in America. Sally has appeared on NBC’s Today program and has been quoted in countless publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Weekend, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, People and Seventeen. Sally has viewed the admissions world from many angles: As a Smith College admission counselor for 15 years, an independent college counselor serving students from a wide range of backgrounds and the author of College Confidential’s “Ask the Dean” column. She also taught language arts, social studies, study skills and test preparation in 10 schools, including American international schools in London, Paris, Geneva, Athens and Tel Aviv. As senior advisor to College Confidential since 2002, Sally has helped hundreds of students and parents navigate the college admissions maze. In 2008, she co-founded College Karma, a private college consulting firm, with her College Confidential colleague Dave Berry, and she continues to serve as a College Confidential advisor. Sally and her husband, Chris Petrides, became first-time parents in 1997 at the ripe-old age of 45. So Sally was nearly an official senior citizen when her son Jack began the college selection process, and when she was finally able to practice what she had preached for more than three decades.