CA residency & state residencies in general...

NIH-funded MSTPs are not allowed to use state of residence as admissions criteria. MD/PhD programs not funded by the NIH, however, may do as they wish.

When I was interviewing at California schools I heard a lot of rumors, from other applicants, that the UCs did actually show some preference toward CA residence for their MSTPs. However, I think you should listen to Gfunk and disregard these rumors if you happen to hear them.

UC undergrads almost always want to stay in California, so there are a lot of CA residents that apply for the MD and MD/PhD programs. This can obviously lead to a disproportionate number of CA residents who end up going to the school. Combined with the fact that the MD programs do have a preference (sometimes requirement) for CA state residency, this is probably the source of such false rumors.

good luck!

tedrik said:

When I was interviewing at California schools I heard a lot of rumors, from other applicants, that the UCs did actually show some preference toward CA residence for their MSTPs. However, I think you should listen to Gfunk and disregard these rumors if you happen to hear them.

UC undergrads almost always want to stay in California, so there are a lot of CA residents that apply for the MD and MD/PhD programs. This can obviously lead to a disproportionate number of CA residents who end up going to the school. Combined with the fact that the MD programs do have a preference (sometimes requirement) for CA state residency, this is probably the source of such false rumors.

good luck!

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I don't know. I kind of wonder about UCSF since I didn't even get a secondary there. I know they're more selective in sending out secondary applications, but they only had my numbers and my AMCAS (the stronger parts of my application) before they rejected me. Maybe I got kicked back to the MD people after being rejected early on by the MSTP, and then they finished me off with MD-only residency requirements. Either way, one of my interviewers at UCSD said the med school there is required by law to have the incoming class be 90% CA residents. The point: just don't plan on getting into the med school and applying after your first year unless you're a resident.

sharpnerd00 said:

I was wondering if people knew whether schools took into consideration your state residency when applying for MD/PhD programs.. i.e., does it matter if you're a CA resident when applying to UCSF or UCSD?

Thanks!

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For UCSF, the MSTP does not consider state residency when they consider your application. However, I don't think MSTP will get to read your application until you submitted a secondary, and I'm not too sure whether the first round of screening for secondaries actually take state residency into consideration (I suppose they do). After you submitted your secondary, selection for MSTP interview will not depend on state residency. However, you will be interviewed for the MD part separately, and you must not be rejected by the MD committee in order for MSTP to consider your application further. Here, again, I'm not too sure if state residency will play a role in the MD committee's decision. In any case, I think UCSF is such a wonderful school in just about every respect (research, medicine, location) that it's worth a try. You never know what's gonna happen. I think about half of UCSF's MSTP class is from out of state.