Moving for post-bacc to state with public med schools-smart move or unnecessary?

[Dance864]

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Looking for some thoughts from experienced SDN'ers... Getting ready to start post-bacc classes and I'm currently living in a state with no public medical school. My parents currently live in a state with 2 public schools and 2 public/private partnership med schools. I've maintained my license/voting record/bank statements in the state where my parents live with the intention of possibly going to school there eventually and am thinking I would need to move there to do my post-bacc work in order to completely establish residency for application time.

I enjoy my independence and have really, really unique EC opportunities here (at least in my opinion 😉) but could just as easily go home. I'll be doing a second bachelors degree to fulfill pre-reqs and have a strong undergrad gpa, so no gpa repair is needed, and unique background/work experience/ec's. Any thoughts?

 

[spacetomatoes]

I did something very similar to this. You just have to look at the state's individual residency requirements.

I did my post-bacc in Georgia after living in New York for many years, but moved back to my home state (Tennessee) before I applied. For instance, Georgia requires you live in the state for a year, not counting a year as a student, so I knew I would never be able to establish residency there in time. Tennessee, however, just needs you to live there, and you become a resident instantly. So I knew that as long as I moved home before I pressed "submit" on my application, I'd be good. I could complete my post-bacc work in GA and still get back to TN in time to establish residency. So to that end, you may be able to do your post-bacc work where you are, so long as you move home prior to applying.

I think it was really worth it. I'm starting at one of my state's public medical schools in 2013 and couldn't be more thrilled. Plus, I'm really glad to be paying the lower tuition compared to private schools.

Good luck to you!

 

[Chip N Sawbones]

I just got accepted to one of my top choices so it all worked out in the end, but if I had my life to live over I would have done my postbac in a warmer state with more medical schools. Knowing that I had good chances of acceptance at cheap state schools would have taken a lot of the pressure off. A search will turn up a thread or two on which states are the best. Texas is going to be the easiest to get into, North Carolina has some great options at low prices, and there's always the Dakotas for those with truly bad grades.

Like Tomatoes said, if you decide to move make sure you know the residency requirements first. You should also be careful to document everything you can. Save copies of your paycheck stubs, rental lease, voter registration, and anything else that could help to prove residency.

 

[rguil15]

I think the general feeling is that Texas is the place to go for this sort of thing. However Texas is aware that they are attractive because of their schools and industries so getting residency is not that easy. Also, yes there are many public schools, yes they are all good, but yes there are a crap load of people in Texas that are also applying for them.