CA or NC resident

[confuse]

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Hi guys,
For an average applicant, would you rather be a CA or NC resident when applying to med schools? I moved to CA for college but I haven't registered my car nor pay tax in CA. Would I still be considered a NC resident?
Another question not relating to med school: my tag, I don't know what's it called but it's the tag on the front window of the car needs to be renewed, do I have to bring my car back to NC to renew it? Thanks.

 

[manta]

I don't know about the license tag, but I do know that residency requirements vary by state. you'll have to check what they are in both NC and in CA and see if you qualify for either or none or both.
CA has pretty stringent requirements. I think there is a minumum amount of time that you have to be physically in the state, and that your income is based in CA. It's been a while since looked at this, so I could be wrong.

Good luck!

 

[WatchingWaiting]

This depends on how competive an applicant you are. If average means ~30 MCAT and 3.6 GPA, you definitely want to go North Carolina. You should check the MSAR, but I see that the Brody SOM at East Carolina University (never heard of it, but it's a med school) doesn't consider out-of-state residents and has a mean GPA of 3.5 and MCAT of 9.1 VR, 8.5 PS, P WS, 8.8 BS, which is among the lowest of MD schools and will make for easy admission for a NC resident. UNC-Chapel Hill is #22 in the US News rankings and has a 10.3 MCAT/3.61 GPA. It also gives a big benefit to NC residents (2/3 get interviews), so if your MCAT and grades are in range, you'll have a much better shot there then you will at any of the UC schools.

The only reason to apply California would be if you absolutely couldn't stand to go to North Carolina for 4 years of med school or if you were a really, really stellar candidate and wanted to try for UCSF. This would be much more of a crapshoot though. Davis and Irvine are the less selective of the California schools, but they only give 1/10 of CA residents interviews, and their MCAT/GPAs are in the 10.6/3.6 range, so you really would have no easy-admit state school to use as a backup.

 

[Gleevec]

Id pick CA. UCSF and UCLA kick arse!

 

[ready]

I'd ask a school in each state for their residency form to make sure that you actually qualify for residency in both states.

Some of the questions they ask are:

Where have you (or your parents if they claim you as a dependant) payed state taxes?

Why did you come to this state?

Where are you registered to vote? Where have you voted?

Where is your car registered?

Where have you lived for the last 4 years?

Last year I thought I was capable of choosing between two states - I claimed the one I wanted to go to school in and it turned out I couldn't have claimed the other one in the first place (my parents lived in the state but had not claimed me as a dependent for 6 years so even though I left the state to go to school I was no longer considered a resident.)

 

[SarahGM]

I was a NY resident but moved down to NC a month ago to begin a job at Duke for the year. Since then, I've bought and registered a car in NC, gotten a NC license plate, changed my voter registration, and declared myself a NC taxpayer on my I9 and W2 forms (which I filled out when beginning work). I've also heard that the fact that I have a job here establishes "domicility." Because of all this, I decided to declare myself a NC resident on the AMCAS. I'm hoping it works out, because I do intend to keep NC residency whatever happens.

 

[thesocialbeast]

being a nc resident and having just gone through the app process last year, here's my 2 cents:

as far as Brody, don't let their averages fool you...the school is very selective in selecting their students because they want students who are more likely to stay in eastern nc to practice

unc interviews a bunch of folks and most folks get waitlisted or on hold after their interviews...they are very slow, concise, and at times sporatic with filling their class (i.e. any one that gets an early interview form them, do not be surprise if you don't hear from them for months while your buddy hears from their the next week!)

while duke is a private school, being from nc can help very, very slightly, like in border like cases (at least according to a mentor of mine on the admissions committee there)

wake forest is 50/50 and they pre-screen like crazy

from what I hear from my CA friends, it appears nc residents may have it better

I would suggest applying as a nc resident because for the schools you apply to as out-of-state, being from nc will diversify your application some...everyone and their momma is from CA!!!

 

[VienneseWaltz]

SarahGM, you've done everything right for establishing NC residency. I would suggest actually voting (if you haven't already) in Nov. and any primary election. You are cutting it close for establishing domicile (you have to have worked a year before classes start to be considered a resident). Other things they look for are joining churches and volunteer organizations, where you keep your property, where your bank accounts are based, and where you own real estate. Also, the look at how much time you physically spend in the state, where you take vacations, etc. (I established NC residency in 2001 for the 2002-2003 app cycle, but I just left for MD).

To the OP: Going to school in CA will not cut it for residency, and it's not enough to make you lose NC residency, especially if your parents are still claiming you as a dependent. Looking at the statistics, you are better off with NC residency. CA residents don't really seem to have "safety" schools in the sense that most other states' residents do. UNC is hella cheap, too.

FYI, ECU is pretty highly regarded in primary-care/rural medicine circles.