Junior Moving from NY to TX; TAKS

Parents Forum
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<p>I’m currently a junior in the class of '07 from a NYC public HS; however, my dad’s job has been relocated to Texas, so I will enter a public high school in Texas next fall.</p>

<p>I’m concerned about qualifying for in-state tuition in public colleges in Texas. My sister, member of the class of '06, shares this problem. To meet the in-state tuition, how long does one need to establish residency in Texas? If my father can show documents that he has had residence there for over 15 months, but she comes in to a UT college from a NYC Public HS, how will that look?</p>

<p>Also, how will colleges view this move from NY to TX for me? I’ll be dropping all my current ECs and I won’t have my letters of recommendations from teachers that know me intimately. My current HS doesn’t weight grades, or offer AP classses, while the HS I’ll be attending in Texas is one of the top in the state, weights grades, and boasts an enormous amount of AP classes. My rank will suffer, I won’t have recs painting wonderful pictures of me from teachers that know me, nor will I have my ECs from the previous NYC HS…</p>

<p>I know that Texas requires TAKS for graduation, but since I’ll be entering a Texas public high school in my senior year, when TAKS aren’t even administered, I don’t know how this will affect me. I’m not worried about the content/difficulty of test itself, rather just satisfying that requirement so it does not prevent me from graduating on time.</p>

<p>Since I’ll be graduating from a Texas high school, I want to graduate as a Texas Scholar or Distinguished Achievement Program (DAP) participant. However, I’m not sure if this is possible under the time circumstances (I’ll enter TX in my senior year - is that enough time to complete the demands of these programs?).</p>

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<p>I just moved to Texas for part of my senior year. TAKS will not be a problem. You can take them in October of your senior year if you just moved there. They have a retake week for people who missed them or didn’t pass the first time. The Distinguished Achievement Program might be hard to qualify for just because of scheduling difficulties.</p>

3

<p>I would ask my NYC teachers for recommendation letters. It’s usually best to ask teachers who have taught you for 1-2 years, rather than 1-2 months. Even if you stayed in NYC, you should be asking your Junior year teachers.
Ask them in May 2006, stay in touch with them over the summer, and when you have your list of schools narrowed down in October/November, you could send them the pre-addressed and stamped envelopes.</p>

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<p>check the University of Texas at Austin website and look for info about establishing texas residency. Info should be there.</p>