State Residency Requirement -- Willing to Move! Ack!

[mermermer]

Hey guys,

this forum is fab.

This question is regarding state residency requirement. Right now, I'm "state-less." Sad, I know. I grew up on CT, and my parents lived there until about 3 years ago. I came up to MA for college, and have been here for 6 years, but MA says I need to have been living here for 5 years prior to matriculation, EXCLUDING undergrad years (filed tax as dependent)
I'm planning on applying for Fall of 2007 or 2008.

Anyways, my question is:
-I want to move to a state where it is relatively easier to get into the state med school. But one that will let me be a "resident" within 2 or 3 years.
-Which states are "easier" to get into, if my stats are less than stellar?

Any input would be FAB. Willing to move to NY or CA or NH or NJ or CT or ME or VT or PA or DC or VA.

Thanks!

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[DrBowtie]

Where do your parents live now?
That would be your state of residence I believe.

 

[mermermer]

Where do your parents live now?
That would be your state of residence I believe.

OUT of the COUNTRY. ayeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[DrBowtie]

I would say NJ or NY.
Jersey b/c easy residency requirement or NY just by sheer number of schools.

 

[Gut Shot]

I'm going to repost part of a post I made in January of last year (I knew this dilemma sounded familiar):

...the total enrollment of UVA and MCV is about 1250 students, and the population of Virginia is slightly over 7 million. Contrast this to California, which has approximately 2500+ spots and a population of over 33 million. Which odds would you rather take?

Or, one could be unfortunate enough to reside in Florida, which has just under 1000 spots and a population of 16 million. New York likewise has 2400+ spots and 19 million people.

If you take into account a 40% out-of-state enrollment for MCV, the number of spots left available for in-state applicants still isn't bad when compared to many other states. That said, some other states are statistically much more favorable for in-state applicants than Virginia. Texas, for instance, has 20 million people and a whopping 4000+ spots. Ohio's 11.3 million people have 3200+ spots.

It will take some digging, but you can discern how many in-state slots there are per capita for each of the states you're interested in. Virginia and Texas both have one-year-to-residency requirements, I don't know about any others. I believe that DC has (or had) an agreement with Virginia and/or Maryland where its residents are considered in-state for admissions purposes, you might want to check on that.

 

[Sundarban1]

Hey guys,

this forum is fab.

This question is regarding state residency requirement. Right now, I'm "state-less." Sad, I know. I grew up on CT, and my parents lived there until about 3 years ago. I came up to MA for college, and have been here for 6 years, but MA says I need to have been living here for 5 years prior to matriculation, EXCLUDING undergrad years (filed tax as dependent)
I'm planning on applying for Fall of 2007 or 2008.

Anyways, my question is:
-I want to move to a state where it is relatively easier to get into the state med school. But one that will let me be a "resident" within 2 or 3 years.
-Which states are "easier" to get into, if my stats are less than stellar?

Any input would be FAB. Willing to move to NY or CA or NH or NJ or CT or ME or VT or PA or DC or VA.

Thanks!

This is a situation that is not going to be resolved on SDN. I would contact state officials in CT and the real low down. Once you find out what state you're an official resident of, then you can work on changing your residency status. I have to say, it is not easy and varies from state to state. If often requires a long period of residency along with property, tax, car issues, etc.

I went through this myself as I grew up in CT and now currently in MA for school. I wanted to assure I would not loose my CT residency so I contacted the state department and they assured me that as long as I did x,y and z I would still be a resident. Good luck.

 

[sunnyjohn]

.........................
Anyways, my question is:
-I want to move to a state where it is relatively easier to get into the state med school. But one that will let me be a "resident" within 2 or 3 years.
-Which states are "easier" to get into, if my stats are less than stellar?

Any input would be FAB. Willing to move to NY or CA or NH or NJ or CT or ME or VT or PA or DC or VA.

Thanks!

Texas, fairly easy to become a resident (one year and a lease, DL or state ID), not state income tax, cheap in-state tuition, 7 schools with number 8 and 9 on the way.

But it's not on your list!

 

[ScreenName]

I second Sundarban1's advice - contact CT officials. Your parents may still be considered CT residents even though they reside outside the country (strange, I know). CT has a law (or at least did 10 years ago, but I doubt that it has been changed) that says that you a still a CT state resident until you declare an address in another state. This is for tax purposes - they can still claim state income tax from people who move overseas, but their last US address was in CT. How do I know this? Because it affected my parents when they moved overseas approximately 10 years ago.

If you are still considered a dependent on your parents' tax forms, you may also be considered a CT resident because of this. If you are not considered a dependent, then it probably won't help you.

 

[jhanchar]

My suggestion, if you are willing to move to any of the states you mentioned to get an "edge", would be to go to Virginia exactly for the reasons Harvati666 lists (PA is not too bad either). Keep in mind that approximately 60% of all medical school applicants are from California. The state is so competitive that these applicants spill over into many out-of-state-schools (most common examples are Boston University and New York Medical College where there are many Californians in the class). My suggestion, out of all the states you list, is to stay away from CA.

I am somewhat familiar with residency laws. Most states will accept you as a resident if you live at a particular location for more than six months. Some medical schools explicitly mention this to be considered a resident. However there are "domicile" and "home" distinctions in many state law codes. If you simply live in a place for six months but are listed as a dependant by your parents and still vote in their home state, then your new address can be considered a "domicile". It will not be considered your “home” and therefore, you could be considered a non-resident. Thus, when you move, plan on being at your new address more than a year, file and pay your taxes in that state, and register to vote there. Some states even have special registration for students to address this very issue. I've included a link of a great example of what some statues look like (this one happens to be from South Carolina but is very similar to all the other states) http://www.musc.edu/es/admis/resident/residency.html. Like Sundarban1 stated, before you move, call the capital of the state that interests you and ask them about their code of laws governing residency. Good luck!

 

[jamesrd]

Yeah, MA sucks for residency. I'm double-screwed when it comes to state schools because I've lived here (MA) for the past 6 years (4.5 in school), and guess where I grew up/parents lived? MAINE! One of six states without an allo school. So the situation is as follows, I think.

UVM sets aside 10 seats for ME residents, Dartmouth 5. So, for a population of 4+ million, there are 15 seats available!

 

[tigress]

My suggestion, if you are willing to move to any of the states you mentioned to get an "edge", would be to go to Virginia exactly for the reasons Harvati666 lists (PA is not too bad either). . .

I am somewhat familiar with residency laws. Most states will accept you as a resident if you live at a particular location for more than six months. Some medical schools explicitly mention this to be considered a resident. . . Thus, when you move, plan on being at your new address more than a year, file and pay your taxes in that state, and register to vote there. Some states even have special registration for students to address this very issue. I've included a link of a great example of what some statues look like (this one happens to be from South Carolina but is very similar to all the other states) http://www.musc.edu/es/admis/resident/residency.html. Like Sundarban1 stated, before you move, call the capital of the state that interests you and ask them about their code of laws governing residency. Good luck!

First of all, I have to strongly disagree with the suggestion of PA. All of the PA schools accept a huge number of out-of-state applicants, and all are expensive (this includes Penn State). If you were going to pick and choose a state for residency, PA would NOT be a good choice. Texas is maybe the best, NY and NJ are good (but check the NY schools' residency requirements, as I've seen different things here on sdn).

Also, it is entirely possible to have no state of residency, as some people who responded don't seem to realize (not jhanchar, but previuos posters). Also, state residency requirements are not necessarily the same requirements as the school requirements. For some schools you have to have lived 5 years in the state! So calling the state capital isn't the way to go, because those rules could be different than the ones for in-state tuition consideration. Simply registering to vote and paying taxes doesn't work, either. Almost all states require that you live in-state for at least one year, NOT including education (as the OP mentioned). So if you live somewhere for college, you could register to vote there, but you won't be a resident, even after 4 years.

edit: That MUSC link is a good one. Ideally you would find this same info (actual state statutes) for any state you're interested in. Unfortunately it's not always easy to find. As you can see from SC laws, living in the state to attend college would not make you a resident unless you bought property or otherwise showed your intent to remain in SC long-term.

 

[mermermer]

thanks for all the great responses.
this forum is the bomb.

i'm contacting UConn now to see if they'll consider me as resident w/out actually moving there, will let you know what they say...

First of all, I have to strongly disagree with the suggestion of PA. All of the PA schools accept a huge number of out-of-state applicants, and all are expensive (this includes Penn State). If you were going to pick and choose a state for residency, PA would NOT be a good choice. Texas is maybe the best, NY and NJ are good (but check the NY schools' residency requirements, as I've seen different things here on sdn).

Also, it is entirely possible to have no state of residency, as some people who responded don't seem to realize (not jhanchar, but previuos posters). Also, state residency requirements are not necessarily the same requirements as the school requirements. For some schools you have to have lived 5 years in the state! So calling the state capital isn't the way to go, because those rules could be different than the ones for in-state tuition consideration. Simply registering to vote and paying taxes doesn't work, either. Almost all states require that you live in-state for at least one year, NOT including education (as the OP mentioned). So if you live somewhere for college, you could register to vote there, but you won't be a resident, even after 4 years.

edit: That MUSC link is a good one. Ideally you would find this same info (actual state statutes) for any state you're interested in. Unfortunately it's not always easy to find. As you can see from SC laws, living in the state to attend college would not make you a resident unless you bought property or otherwise showed your intent to remain in SC long-term.