Acquiring California Residency status

[ToliBro]

So, I'm a non-trad about to start pre-reqs part time as my wife is in professional school here in Michigan until 2023. When she's done, she really wants us to be on the West Coast, preferably in California where her family is located. I'm well aware that Cali schools are very difficult to get into in state and that this is probably not the most optimal of decisions, but unfortunately, she disagrees. How do schools determine residency status? I've looked up how the UCs determine eligibility for undergrad in state tuition, but there doesn't seem to be anything specific for the medical schools for the purpose of residency.

Ideally, I would apply 2023 for matriculation in 2024. Would I need to have an official place of residence in California >365 days from my matriculation date, or during my application period for me to be considered California resident? I would be working full time as a RN in California until matriculation to meet the financial criteria, of course.

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[Obnoxious Dad]

Moving from Michigan to California to get into medical school is like moving from New York to Antarctica to become a jazz musician. California accounts for approximately 13% of the U.S. population and has approximately 8% of the country's allopathic and osteopathic medical school seats. Michigan accounts for 3% of the population and has 4.5% of the country's medical school seats. Stare at the table linked below:

https://www.aamc.org/media/6076/download

The average MCAT score among Michigan residents who matriculated to an allopathic medical school in 2020 was 511.0. For California residents the average was 513.5. Only three states had an average MCAT score that was higher than California's. Michigan's average score was below the national average.

In addition to having a better chance at an MD school in Michigan, Michigan State has an enormous DO school where you'd pay instate tuition. .

So, I'm a non-trad about to start pre-reqs part time as my wife is in professional school here in Michigan until 2023. When she's done, she really wants us to be on the West Coast, preferably in California where her family is located. I'm well aware that Cali schools are very difficult to get into in state and that this is probably not the most optimal of decisions, but unfortunately, she disagrees. How do schools determine residency status? I've looked up how the UCs determine eligibility for undergrad in state tuition, but there doesn't seem to be anything specific for the medical schools for the purpose of residency.

Ideally, I would apply 2023 for matriculation in 2024. Would I need to have an official place of residence in California >365 days from my matriculation date, or during my application period for me to be considered California resident? I would be working full time as a RN in California until matriculation to meet the financial criteria, of course.

Even if you meet the legal criteria for California residency, that doesn't mean that California medical school admissions offices have to TREAT you like a California resident. If your wife is a law student have her read Buchwald v. New Mexico. Paula Buchwald moved to New Mexico and established legal residency in New Mexico and then applied to UNM Medical School. They rejected her on the grounds that she had moved to New Mexico just to go to med school and would leave after graduation. She sued in federal court and threw the constitutional kitchen sink at the school. She lost. The court said the State of New Mexico had a compelling interest to prepare people to practice medicine in New Mexico.

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[ToliBro]

Moving from Michigan to California to get into medical school is like moving from New York to Antarctica to become a jazz musician. California accounts for approximately 13% of the U.S. population and has approximately 8% of the country's allopathic and osteopathic medical school seats. Michigan accounts for 3% of the population and has 4.5% of the country's medical school seats. Stare at the table linked below:

https://www.aamc.org/media/6076/download
The average MCAT score among Michigan residents who matriculated to an allopathic medical school in 2020 was 511.0. For California residents the average was 513.5. Only three states had an average MCAT score that was higher than California's. Michigan's average score was below the national average.

In addition to having a better chance at an MD school in Michigan, Michigan State has an enormous DO school where you'd pay instate tuition. .

Alas, yes, I'm aware of all of the above. I'm actually located fairly close to most of the Michigan medical schools.

Even if you meet the legal criteria for California residency, that doesn't mean that California medical school admissions offices have to TREAT you like a California resident. If your wife is a law student have her read Buchwald v. New Mexico. Paula Buchwald moved to New Mexico and established legal residency in New Mexico and then applied to UNM Medical School. They rejected her on the grounds that she had moved to New Mexico just to go to med school and would leave after graduation. She sued in federal court and threw the constitutional kitchen sink at the school. She lost. The court said the State of New Mexico had a compelling interest to prepare people to practice medicine in New Mexico.

Fairly noted. We would be moving closer to family and I would be working in-state in Cali for over a year prior to matriculation. I suppose there's no real answer other than talking to someone in admissions, and even then the committee could look unfavorably on the app? That sucks, but oh well.

 

[gyngyn]

I can only recommend moving to CA if you want to be exported to another state to attend medical school.
CA is the largest exporter of pre-meds in the country. Last year that amounted to 23.4% of our applicants. Compare that to only 12.7% in MI.

https://www.aamc.org/media/6016/download

To be successful as a Californian (even if you are exported), you need better stats than what you would need coming from MI.

 

[KnightDoc]

Alas, yes, I'm aware of all of the above. I'm actually located fairly close to most of the Michigan medical schools.



Fairly noted. We would be moving closer to family and I would be working in-state in Cali for over a year prior to matriculation. I suppose there's no real answer other than talking to someone in admissions, and even then the committee could look unfavorably on the app? That sucks, but oh well.

Bottom line, strategically, your best move would be to stay in MI for the year and apply to CA schools as OOS while applying to MI schools IS.

Your wife put her CA aspirations on hold to pursue her own schooling in MI. I think you owe it to yourself to stay in MI for the year before med school in order to enhance your chances of getting in ANYWHERE. As you know, med school admissions are way more competitive than just about any other type of professional school.

You really cannot make an informed decision until you have more visibility into what your options are (i.e., after an application cycle), but you are making things unnecessarily difficult for yourself if you go out of your way to become a CA resident just prior to applying, just to maybe save some money through IS tuition if you are fortunate enough to be accepted to a UC school. GOOD LUCK, both with school and with your wife and her family!!!!

 

[ToliBro]

Bottom line, strategically, your best move would be to stay in MI for the year and apply to CA schools as OOS while applying to MI schools IS.

Your wife put her CA aspirations on hold to pursue her own schooling in MI. I think you owe it to yourself to stay in MI for the year before med school in order to enhance your chances of getting in ANYWHERE. As you know, med school admissions are way more competitive than just about any other type of professional school.

You really cannot make an informed decision until you have more visibility into what your options are (i.e., after an application cycle), but you are making things unnecessarily difficult for yourself if you go out of your way to become a CA resident just prior to applying, just to maybe save some money through IS tuition if you are fortunate enough to be accepted to a UC school. GOOD LUCK, both with school and with your wife and her family!!!!

Thank you for your insight. This matches what I had thought and planned-- it seemed very dodgy to me to throw away access to the Michigan medical schools that I had here, especially with some of the personal connections I have with academic attendings, but I had to balance that against an extremely strong desire by my wife to be closer to family.

My goal was to get in-state residency for the purpose of more easily getting accepted to a CA school, but it appears that the adcoms wouldn't look on that with great favor. Doing so to save money didn't really enter my mind, to be honest; my wife will be making (on the West coast) pay comparable to physician with minimal student debt and I've resigned myself to racking up significant student loans no matter what route I take.

 

[KnightDoc]

Thank you for your insight. This matches what I had thought and planned-- it seemed very dodgy to me to throw away access to the Michigan medical schools that I had here, especially with some of the personal connections I have with academic attendings, but I had to balance that against an extremely strong desire by my wife to be closer to family.

My goal was to get in-state residency for the purpose of more easily getting accepted to a CA school, but it appears that the adcoms wouldn't look on that with great favor. Doing so to save money didn't really enter my mind, to be honest; my wife will be making (on the West coast) pay comparable to physician with minimal student debt and I've resigned myself to racking up significant student loans no matter what route I take.

I think you are slightly misunderstanding. Whatever happened in that one case in New Mexico should NOT drive your decision. New Mexico is not California, and CA adcoms will not care that you just moved IS the prior year.

The message everyone is trying to convey is that even lifelong CA residents have a very difficult time in CA, and that CA is a net exporter of med students. As a result, you are giving up a big advantage in MI for a small advantage in CA (the same as any other CA resident, but, still...), and will put yourself in a pool with a lower overall admit rate and a higher overall MCAT score, voluntarily, when you have a better option, all in an attempt to appease your wife, who herself went OOS for grad school.

It could pay off, but it's just a bad bet and a less than optimal application strategy. By the way, if you have to make the move for your wife's career, then it is what it is, but if she could work in MI, at least for the application year while you see what happens, that would be the way to go.

 

[gyngyn]

To add to the above, there are only two UC's with a stated preference for CA applicants (UCD and UCR).
UCR has a mission to serve the IE (to which you have no connection) and UCD rarely takes OOS candidates (or recent arrivals).

What appears to be a "preference" for IS candidates at other schools is merely a reflection of our superabundance of well-qualified applicants who prefer to stay in CA.

 

[Obnoxious Dad]

So, I'm a non-trad about to start pre-reqs part time as my wife is in professional school here in Michigan until 2023. When she's done, she really wants us to be on the West Coast, preferably in California where her family is located. I'm well aware that Cali schools are very difficult to get into in state and that this is probably not the most optimal of decisions, but unfortunately, she disagrees. How do schools determine residency status? I've looked up how the UCs determine eligibility for undergrad in state tuition, but there doesn't seem to be anything specific for the medical schools for the purpose of residency.

Ideally, I would apply 2023 for matriculation in 2024. Would I need to have an official place of residence in California >365 days from my matriculation date, or during my application period for me to be considered California resident? I would be working full time as a RN in California until matriculation to meet the financial criteria, of course.

OK, I made some calculations based on AAMC Facts Table A-1 and now I am even more certain that leaving Michigan for California to apply to medical school would be a blunder of epic proportions. You will find an EXCEL spreadsheet attached which includes Table A-1 as the first tab and a second tab which includes my comparison of the success rate of Californians applying to medical school in California with the success rate of Michiganders applying to Michigan medical schools in 2020.

Table A-1 displays the number of state residents and non residents applying to and matriculating at every allopathic medical school in the U.S. It is absolutely true that 75% of the matriculants at California MD medical schools are California residents while only 61% of the matriculants at Michigan's medical schools are Michigan residents. However, if you look at Michigan's resident matriculants as a percentage of resident applicants at each school and compare those with the analogous percentages in California, there is simply no contest. At Wayne State an astounding 11.6% of the applicants actually matriculate at Wayne and it's absolutely certain that some people that are accepted at Wayne choose to go to Michigan or Michigan State's Grand Rapids campus.

Using these matriculant/applicant ratios can be a bit dicey due to the possibility of potential applicants self excluding from the applicant pool. However, given the fact that matriculants from Michigan had a significantly lower average MCAT score than matriculants from California, matriculant/applicant ratios appear to be on point in this case.

Finally, if you score in the 506-508 range on the MCAT you have a great back up option at the MSU DO school. Every year the DO school accepts approximately 300 students. Historically 85% of the DO class were Michigan residents. It is true that the DO school recently lowered tuition for nonresidents in order to attract more students from beyond Michigan's borders.

Facts and Figures | MSU Osteopathic Medicine

com.msu.edu

 

[ToliBro]

@Obnoxious Dad

Yeah, I was fairly convinced that trying to move to CA was a bad idea, especially with someone with a faculty badge weighing in too. This seals it. Thanks for the data!

It could pay off, but it's just a bad bet and a less than optimal application strategy. By the way, if you have to make the move for your wife's career, then it is what it is, but if she could work in MI, at least for the application year while you see what happens, that would be the way to go.

Ack, sorry for not noting this.. Her field has very high pick up and move ability (veterinary medicine). She's not going to have much issue finding a job locally, although it wouldn't be ideal to move within a year.