Medical School Regional Preference

[Bethany555]

I tried searching this, but got mostly hits on residency or ones that didn't answer my question.

When applying to undergrad, schools have strong (said or unsaid) regional preferences. To improve diversity, people from underrepresented areas like Wisconsin, Montana, etc. have preference equal to minority status to selective private schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. while people in the northeast/California which are over-represented have a correspondingly tougher time. State schools are pretty much obligated to give in-state preference, though.

For residency, it seems to work that if you live in the region, have family in the region, etc. you are greatly preferred.

For medical school, how does it work? Beyond in-state preference, SUNY prefers new york students, etc., are there regional preferences for private schools one way or the other. Would somewhere like UPenn prefer Pennsylvania students for being in-state or would it be harder because more people apply in state? Also, would they prefer areas like Wisconsin that get fewer number of applicants like in undergrad apps?

Just curious, thanks!

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[Brachyury]

I tried searching this, but got mostly hits on residency or ones that didn't answer my question.

When applying to undergrad, schools have strong (said or unsaid) regional preferences. To improve diversity, people from underrepresented areas like Wisconsin, Montana, etc. have preference equal to minority status to selective private schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. while people in the northeast/California which are over-represented have a correspondingly tougher time. State schools are pretty much obligated to give in-state preference, though.

For residency, it seems to work that if you live in the region, have family in the region, etc. you are greatly preferred.

For medical school, how does it work? Beyond in-state preference, SUNY prefers new york students, etc., are there regional preferences for private schools one way or the other. Would somewhere like UPenn prefer Pennsylvania students for being in-state or would it be harder because more people apply in state? Also, would they prefer areas like Wisconsin that get fewer number of applicants like in undergrad apps?

Just curious, thanks!

Honestly, it varies from school-to-school

Some state schools only take state residents (Arkansas, SIU, etc), other state schools primarily take in-state residents but will accept a certain percent of OOS applicants (Texas, etc), while other state will only take residents or students with strong ties to the state (Indiana, SoDak, etc). Some states, like California, will only accept state residents at some schools (Davis and Irvine), have a strong preference for instate residents at some schools (UCSD), while other schools don't have a strong preference for state residents (UCSF and UCLA).

In terms of private schools, it's also complicated. Some private schools don't have a preference for state/regional residents (Stanford, Northwestern, etc). Some private schools receive state funds so they have a minor preference for residents from a specific state (Temple, Rush, Brown, etc).

Some private and public schools have agreements with states that do not have med schools. For example, through the WICHE program, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Alaska residents are eligible for spots at certain state med schools in the Western states. Since Delaware does not have a med school, it has an agreement with Jefferson to take Delaware students

Point is, it varies a lot

 

[Ismet]

When you're ready to apply, invest in an MSAR ($15 for online access for 1 year). It gives you the breakdown of the applicants/interviews/matriculants for IS and OOS.

 

[Bethany555]

Sorry if I didn't work my question correctly, but I wasn't referring to in-state vs OOS, which I already have heard about.

I was wondering, if states that are stereo-typically less represented (midwest - wisconsin, montana, etc.) get preference at selective east coast private schools on the basis of being unrepresented. Basically affirmative action but for region.

It is common practice for undergrad admissions for a student from Wisconsin to be admitted with far lower stats than a student from the east coast. This can be seen by the national merit cutoffs by state - http://www.collegeplanningsimplified.com/NationalMerit.html . These cutoffs represent the 99th percentile of students in the state. The three highest states are Mass., NJ, D.C. with 223 whereas Wyoming has a 204 cutoff. So do private schools (not state schools which we already know about) hand out brownie points for being in one of these lower represented regions?

 

[Schizotypy]

I'm not sure why you keep using Wisconsin as an example of a state that is "underrepresented in medical school applications"; it actually produces quite a lot of medical school applicants (https://www.aamc.org/download/159428/data/table3.pdf).

I don't think anyone will really be able to answer your question specifically. Howver, you might find some of these charts useful: https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/

 

[Mount Sinai]

Private medical schools place "have a tendency" to place less emphasis on state of residence and focus on a lot of other factors.

 

[Brachyury]

Sorry if I didn't work my question correctly, but I wasn't referring to in-state vs OOS, which I already have heard about.

I was wondering, if states that are stereo-typically less represented (midwest - wisconsin, montana, etc.) get preference at selective east coast private schools on the basis of being unrepresented. Basically affirmative action but for region.

It is common practice for undergrad admissions for a student from Wisconsin to be admitted with far lower stats than a student from the east coast. This can be seen by the national merit cutoffs by state - http://www.collegeplanningsimplified.com/NationalMerit.html . These cutoffs represent the 99th percentile of students in the state. The three highest states are Mass., NJ, D.C. with 223 whereas Wyoming has a 204 cutoff. So do private schools (not state schools which we already know about) hand out brownie points for being in one of these lower represented regions?

Yeah, I see where you're coming from. Most (private) schools still like to have geographic diversity, but its not on the same level as it is for UG (i.e. I've never heard of med schools giving an applicant from Montana a 30k scholarship to come to their institution solely because they are from Montana). At the same time, unlike for national merit finalist cut-offs where we proxy the quality of one's high school based on the amalgamated performance of their state, for med school, we are judged on the quality of our UG institution. In other words, you are more likely to be judged--favorably or negatively--by the quality of your undergrad institution than the fact that you are a resident of Wisconsin

 

[Omppu27]

@brachyury Temple is a public school and I know an oos who got accepted to Arkansas 😕

 

[Brachyury]

@brachyury Temple is a public school and I know an oos who got accepted to Arkansas 😕

Temple, like Penn state, is "state affiliated"

I apologize: you're correct Arkansas does accept OOS students (years ago when I applied, they didn't--or maybe it was LSU or Mississippi) http://www.uams.edu/com/comcat/default.asp

 

[Bethany555]

Yeah, I see where you're coming from. Most (private) schools still like to have geographic diversity, but its not on the same level as it is for UG (i.e. I've never heard of med schools giving an applicant from Montana a 30k scholarship to come to their institution solely because they are from Montana). At the same time, unlike for national merit finalist cut-offs where we proxy the quality of one's high school based on the amalgamated performance of their state, for med school, we are judged on the quality of our UG institution. In other words, you are more likely to be judged--favorably or negatively--by the quality of your undergrad institution than the fact that you are a resident of Wisconsin

Thank you for being the best answer which hits at my question! Yeah, that makes a lot of sense since undergrad you can go wherever you choose.

As for the Wisconsin under-represented thing, I was trying to use a generic midwest state that is under-represented at 'private east coast' schools, nothing particular about Wisconsin.