Unexpected relocation. Which state to claim for residency?

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I currently live in Oregon, yet due to some unforseen circumstances, I will be forced to leave and move to Midwest by July 1st (and spend at a little less than one year there). [it is not a matter of criminal charges/ court order or anything of the sort that might have affected my chances/red flagged my application]

I was going to submit my app to AMCAS/AACOMAS in early June (when spring grades are posted to my school), and initially intended to claim Oregon as a home state.


Losing OR residency means if I apply and accepted to OHSU I will never regain in-state tuition. However, the state I am moving to has a couple of instate schools with tuition significantly cheaper than OHSU

Not applying to OHSU is obviously an option, however most of my extracurriculars are tailored for OHSU (as well as my age).

Do I continue claiming OR residency (even though I will not come back to OR) or do I claim residency in new place (do I need to wait to submit until I physically move), even though I would have lived there a day or two at the time of submission?

It is extremely unlikely that you will be granted in-state tuition at any school in your new state if you have been living there very briefly at the time of application. Without knowing what state you are moving to, you'll have to check their residency rules. You can declare whatever state you'd like on amcas, but that won't automatically merit you receiving in state tuition. If you must move, you may find yourself in a position where you can get in state consideration for admissions purposes but nothing else.

Well, how this typically plays out is like this:
1. The state of residence that you report on AMCAS is what med schools assume about you.
2. Down the road, you have to prove your residency in the state you reported, to public schools in that state (or schools that give instate tuition to the state you reported). Screw this up and you screw yourself by belonging nowhere.
3. You count as a resident, in the average state, if you have established a domicile (drivers license, voter reg, car reg, income tax etc) one year prior to the start of the program to which you apply. (Some states require 2 years. Most states generally need you to prove that you didn't just come to suck on state resources such as going to school.)
4. You may have the choice to maintain your Oregon residency, if you leave all your domiciliary assets in Oregon and continue to pay Oregon income tax. Lots of people have to leave their home state to take a job, and they aren't forced to give up their home state. Of course it helps if you own property or whatnot.
5. Oregon is not all that friendly to instaters, and it's one of the more expensive public schools. If you are not enamored with OHSU, you may find a better deal elsewhere. (OHSU is one of my favorites, but I'm going with full disclosure here.)

If you go with a Midwest state, you need to have at least a mailing address in that state before you submit AMCAS as a resident of that state. And you'd want to get going on all of your domiciliary assets right away.

Best of luck to you.

Which state are you moving to?
Why are your ECs and age tailored specifically for OHSU but won't work for other schools?

What Dr Midlife said is what I have found. Last cycle when I applied, I was a MN resident for my application, and all things related to residency. I now live in CO, I am NOT a CO resident, I will be going to school here, but because I have a home in MN I can say I'm still a resident there, at least for awhile... I am only a 'temporary' resident in CO until I graduate from DO school, their rules not mine... Keep OR as your resident state, as legally it is, none of the states you will be moving to will accept you as a 'resident' for tuition purposes until you've worked there as a non-dependent adult for 1yr (btw, that means you have to be over 24)...

Oregon native here...agree that OHSU has very little state preference. If it behooves you to establish residency in your next state, do that.
Good luck!

When I was interviewing in two years ago, I was living in another state for a job, but I had residency in my home state when I began. I was accepted to state schools in both states, and although I ultimately came to the school in my state (where I claimed residency), it seemed that the other school would have been willing to grant me instate tuition there because I had relocated for a job (ie didn't just move there for the tuition benefits). By the time you are accepted, you will have probably lived in the state in the midwest long enough to have residency there if you want. It might be a good question to call admissions people in your "new state" schools to ask about.

My understanding is that the school uses the residency you select at the time of the AMCAS/AACOMAS application. I am NOT eligible for CO tuition rates...

Originally Posted by SBB2016

My understanding is that the school uses the residency you select at the time of the AMCAS/AACOMAS application. I am NOT eligible for CO tuition rates...

This does indeed get quite complicated quite quickly. Remember, the admissions office staff are there (in part) to answer questions just like this. I wouldn't hesitate to contact them and ask what they want you to do. I'd imagine it's a pretty common question.

From a legal/technical perspective, you can claim residence in a state once you'd start accruing/owing taxes in that state. There's a difference between a *residence* and a *domicile*. Think of your residence as the place where you currently reside. Your domicile is your home base. Your residence and your domicile may, in fact, be the same place. But they might not. Example: you're a college student in Virginia, but your parents live in/you group up in Florida. You're a Virginia resident, with a domicile in Florida.

To address this issue and to prevent "cherry picking," many/most states have a clause that you must be a legal resident of the state in question for at least one year before you can qualify for in-state tuition. But anyone who handles financial aid at a state university will tell you that the "test" for residency is often 12+ questions long.

Remember, for tuition purposes, you have to be a resident SOMEWHERE. Fundamentally, there cannot be a situation where you are a person "without a state." Schools cannot play themselves off of each other refusing to grant in-state tuition status for either state.

Anyhoo, relocate, get a job (doing anything!), and start paying taxes to your new state. The legal litmus test is whether you are paying taxes in that state. So get a job, transfer that drivers license and your vehicle registration, etc. The moment you do pretty much anything like that you can claim to be a resident of that state.

Sorry for the novel on the issue! I once worked with a property tax collector who would get red in the face everyday over people who lived in one state, but parked their car, boat, airplane, or whatever in another state to avoid taxes. Imagine every variation on this theme you can. People get wildly creative about avoiding property taxes. It's actually quite funny if you can avoid getting angry about it.

With respect to med school admissions, there are a number of problems with this info.

Originally Posted by ccrone

From a legal/technical perspective, you can claim residence in a state once you'd start accruing/owing taxes in that state.

Not correct for the purposes of assessing eligibility for instate preference and/or tuition. You can't require the ability to get a job that pays above the taxable level (student or parent) to determine domicile, or a sizeable portion of the population born in the state would have no domicile. You can't assume the student or parent owns any property of interest.

Originally Posted by ccrone

You're a Virginia resident, with a domicile in Florida.

For med school admissions and tuition purposes, if you use the term "state resident", this implies that you are eligible for instate tuition, which does not add clarity. I suggest using domicile vs. "where you live" or similar.

Originally Posted by ccrone

To address this issue and to prevent "cherry picking," many/most states have a clause that you must be a legal resident of the state in question for at least one year before you can qualify for in-state tuition.

That "clause" is usually a whole entire state law.

Originally Posted by ccrone

Remember, for tuition purposes, you have to be a resident SOMEWHERE. Fundamentally, there cannot be a situation where you are a person "without a state." Schools cannot play themselves off of each other refusing to grant in-state tuition status for either state.

Fundamentally, yes there can be such an indeterminate situation. School A doesn't have to care one bit whether a student qualifies as a resident of another state. There's no arbitrator or other federal authority that will make any school respect indeterminate domicile in any timely manner (federal court cases run longer than med school). School A only cares whether the student qualifies as eligible for instate tuition. School A's responsibility is over once that is done.

If you file AMCAS as a resident of state A, but you can't prove it, and you have the excellent problem of getting accepted at a school in state B where you can prove your residency, then the burden is on you to get state school B to respect your domiciliary in admissions decisions and then in consideration of tuition. Extremely inefficient.

Best of luck to you.

I want to thank everyone for multitude of replies.
The state in question is OH. As I move I will have a job waiting and will be paying taxes almost from day one.
Both UCincinnati and Ohio state seem to require 1 year of having OH DL, address (wiht lease to prove it) and tax-paying job for in-state consideration prior to beginning of classes. It appears that state of OH itself will not let me keep my Oregon DL/plates on the car more than 30 days after a move because I am not in military.

My MCAT/GPA are slightly above the average data on MSAR for both schools (but nothing eye popping).

Regarding OHSU -- I truly enjoy their program's spirit, implementation and as for EC stuff: I am older (and they do not seem to snob 30 year olds) and I did not do any research, and they were OK with that as my EC track was much more people-interaction oriented.

Originally Posted by Woland

I want to thank everyone for multitude of replies.
The state in question is OH. As I move I will have a job waiting and will be paying taxes almost from day one.
Both UCincinnati and Ohio state seem to require 1 year of having OH DL, address (wiht lease to prove it) and tax-paying job for in-state consideration prior to beginning of classes. It appears that state of OH itself will not let me keep my Oregon DL/plates on the car more than 30 days after a move because I am not in military.

My MCAT/GPA are slightly above the average data on MSAR for both schools (but nothing eye popping).

Regarding OHSU -- I truly enjoy their program's spirit, implementation and as for EC stuff: I am older (and they do not seem to snob 30 year olds) and I did not do any research, and they were OK with that as my EC track was much more people-interaction oriented.

Okay. Definitely pick Ohio as the state of residency. It's no contest in the ease of admissions. You would have been changing your DL/plates asap anyways, since you would want to establish that first year instate. It's very easy and straight forward to establish residency in Ohio, so you are in good shape. Even if you mess up somewhere, you can still get in-state residency at least by M2. 100% of OOS students get instate residency at OSU the second year. For tuition purposes, you might not actually have to pay any OOS tuition, if your one-year mark kicks in before the start of the year.

As for EC, anything you have for OHSU will work for OSU (and most of the other state schools). While OSU is a big research university, they have a strong focus on patient care. Aka, secondary essay topic is on altruism.

Thirdly, OSU likes nontraditionals. The oldest person in the 2015 class is 47, and the old curriculum, at least was very non-trad friendly.

In the long scheme of things, you will do much better in the application process. More schools, cheaper, and higher chances of acceptance. Plus, definitely cheaper cost of living. Also, along with DL/plates, remember to register to vote.

Oops. Double post.

Originally Posted by Woland

I want to thank everyone for multitude of replies.
The state in question is OH. As I move I will have a job waiting and will be paying taxes almost from day one.
Both UCincinnati and Ohio state seem to require 1 year of having OH DL, address (wiht lease to prove it) and tax-paying job for in-state consideration prior to beginning of classes. It appears that state of OH itself will not let me keep my Oregon DL/plates on the car more than 30 days after a move because I am not in military.

My MCAT/GPA are slightly above the average data on MSAR for both schools (but nothing eye popping).

Regarding OHSU -- I truly enjoy their program's spirit, implementation and as for EC stuff: I am older (and they do not seem to snob 30 year olds) and I did not do any research, and they were OK with that as my EC track was much more people-interaction oriented.

Be extra-sure to go ahead and call the admissions department to make sure you know what their requirements are for residency (ie, "I'm unexpectedly relocating to Ohio, and want to know what I have to do to secure residency.") If you want to avoid calling the medical school admissions office, the general financial aid/etc. office for the university should do just fine.

I had several problems with my state of residency this past application season, so you have my sympathy. Let me echo was Dr. Midlife said: it is absolutely possible to be without a state of residency for medical school admissions and tuition purposes. I saw it happen to a friend, and I only narrowly avoiding it myself. Keep in mind that federal classifications of residency do not overrule each med school's own rules for state residency. The biggest things that I didn't know prior to applying is in states with multiple state schools, each state school can have a different state residency policy. One school may give no challenge to proving residency while the other will challenge you. Absolutely do what the above poster suggested and call EACH school you're interested in applying to in order to get the full information. Unfortunately, some schools still won't give you a straight answer... but it's better than nothing. Another thing to know is that some schools set deadlines as to when you can declare/switch state residency.

I started out declaring my home state as my state of residency only to be rejected. I had to switch my residency status (thankfully very early) during the application season.This caused me to be challenged at one state school, which I won by providing income taxes, a letter of employment, and confirmation of my address. The other state school did not consider me as a state resident despite the other state school doing so. It's a jumbled mess at times. Good luck, and definitely get this sorted out before you apply. You'll regret it if you don't.