How long do you need to live in a state to establish residency for medical schools?

[Luckygirlsadheart]

I'm a borderline/below borderline applicant with a 504 MCAT and 3.7 cGPA and 3.58 sGPA. What would be the best state to establish residency for medical schools, and how long would I have to live there for to be considered a resident of that state?

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[ndafife]

Best state? Like West Virginia, or the Dakotas, or something like that. A state with a school that pretty much only accepts IS applicants.

Depends on the school. General rule of thumb would be 12 months while doing things like voting, paying taxes, vehicle registration, and getting an IS driver's license.

 

[To be MD]

I'm a borderline/below borderline applicant with a 504 MCAT and 3.7 cGPA and 3.58 sGPA. What would be the best state to establish residency for medical schools, and how long would I have to live there for to be considered a resident of that state?

Each state has its own law on establishing IS residency.

Many times, establishing residency requires having paid work (and paying taxes on that income) in that state; so, there are places in the country where you can go to school for 4 years and not become a resident. But, @ndafife's post might be a good rule of thumb--just remember there are 50 thumbs here 🙂.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Yea varies by state. I have a friend who actually did this by moving to Louisiana and taking residency there. He said Louisiana and South Carolina are 2 good states for residency since they don't require you to be employed there to establish domicile. Plus they've both got relatively cheap in state schools - ESP South carolina

 

[hurtem&healem]

In some states, such a Connecticut, you can claim residency for tuition purposes after the first year of med school. In Massachusetts, you have to have lived there for the SEVEN CONSECUTIVE YEARS prior to applying to UMass in order to qualify as a resident.

So yeah, it can vary significantly by state.

 

[hurtem&healem]

But to actually answer your question, Vermont only requires 12 months to establish residency (don't know of anywhere shorter) and UVM accepts somewhere close to 90% of IS applicants. Plus Burlington is a little more desirable of a location for most people than Grand Forks, ND (no offense to anyone at UND, just responding to the previous post. But I did live in GF and I stand by my statement 😉 ).

The curve ball in your ostensible approach--establish residency to bolster acceptance chances--is that a lot of state schools' secondaries specifically ask about your ties to the state, etc. Obviously no one is obtuse enough to write "I moved here a year ago to have a better chance of getting accepted." I'm just throwing it out there that wherever you decide to go, keep in consideration that the adcom will probably have their bullsh*t meter set to high when reviewing your file.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Best state? Texas. But I believe you have to have to be working full-time for that year. Just living there doesn't count from my understanding.

 

[PreMedTex]

Am I the only one who considers it crazy to move to another state to potentially slightly improve your chances of getting into medical school?

I dont think thats the perspective here, I imagine it would be for monetary reasons. That IMHO is NOT crazy, looking at 80K per year vs 17K per year.... yeah I think i can take a gap year for that...

Edit: re-read OP's post. Agreed that would be slightly crazy to move to increase chances, but I stand by my original point!