NY instate resident for med school vs Florida instate resident for medical school

[CowsRule]

Hey guys! So I'm a born and raised floridian, went to highschool, college everything here.

I may want to go to school in NY.
I'm confused on one thing: Residency.

1. Would I qualify to be a NY state resident and should I declare myself as a resident or keep FL residency?
2. How will it affect me if I'm a NY resident if so, as in will it give me more of a chance to go to NY med schools (the ones I mentioned only) and would it be worth it to do that, and just state strong in state ties to Florida if I apply to medical schools there?
3. Should I instead apply as a florida resident to NY schools and Florida schools, and will me working in NY for a year count as strong ties to the state/give me a better chance to instate schools?

I'll be applying with a 3.8 gpa non-sci major and hopefully 516 MCAT female south asian ORM.
I have all the checkboxes. President of the Social Work Student Association, Vice President of the Speech/Gavel Club, Mentoring for a year, Working at a free clinic, etc.

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[KnightDoc]

Hey guys! So I'm a born and raised floridian, went to highschool, college everything here.

However, I plan on moving to NY for americorps 1 year volunteer service and doing that for a gap year and THEN apply to NY medical schools (Only applying to Hofstra, NYMC, stony brook, sinai, suny downstate, albert einstein, NYIT, touro) because my boyfriend of 3 years and some family live in downstate NY now. (First cousins and Aunts) I would really prefer to stay in NY and go to the schools there. My parents are divorced so one of my parents will be coming with me to NY my mom staying in Florida.
I'm confused on one thing: Residency.

1. Would I qualify to be a NY state resident and should I declare myself as a resident or keep FL residency?
2. How will it affect me if I'm a NY resident if so, as in will it give me more of a chance to go to NY med schools (the ones I mentioned only) and would it be worth it to do that, and just state strong in state ties to Florida if I apply to medical schools there?
3. Should I instead apply as a florida resident to NY schools and Florida schools, and will me working in NY for a year count as strong ties to the state/give me a better chance to instate schools?

I'll be applying with a 3.8 gpa non-sci major and hopefully 516 MCAT female south asian ORM.
I have all the checkboxes. With Americorps over 1k non-clinical volunteer hours, 2 years clinical experience, 2 years research with no pubs and 2 posters. President of the Social Work Student Association, Vice President of the Speech/Gavel Club, Mentoring for a year, Working at a free clinic, etc.

You have to check each state's residency rules, since the schools only follow the rules of their states rather than setting them themselves. You can only be a resident of one state, but, if your parents are divorced, one in FL and one in NY, you will probably be able to choose between them. The key will be whether or not you are considered independent (will whatever you make from Americorps be enough to provide at least half of your support?) and whether either of your parents claims you as a dependent on their tax return. If you really do support yourself in NY (that means not living with boyfriend's family, your family, etc. unless you are earning and paying at least half of all of your expenses -- rent, food, transportation, insurance, etc.) or you are a dependent of the parent who becomes a NY resident, you should be okay.

State residency does provide an admission boost for certain schools (check MSAR for details) and usually provides lower tuition for public schools. Strong ties are a different thing altogther, and means different things for different schools, so it's difficult to generalize, but, sure, you can make the case that you have strong ties to either state under the circumstances you have described. Good luck!!

 

[gyngyn]

Florida: mean MCAT for matriculants, 510.7. Mean gpa: 3.74 IS matriculation: 20.3%
NY: mean MCAT, 512.7. Mean gpa: 3.69 IS matriculation: 30.9%

If you have a better MCAT and had the choice, it appears that NY is a better bet.

https://www.aamc.org/system/files/2019-11/2019_FACTS_Table_A-20.pdf

https://www.aamc.org/system/files/2019-11/2019_FACTS_Table_A-5.pdf

 

[KnightDoc]

Florida: mean MCAT for matriculants, 510.7. Mean gpa: 3.74 IS matriculation: 20.3%
NY: mean MCAT, 512.7. Mean gpa: 3.69 IS matriculation: 30.9%

If you have a better MCAT and had the choice, it appears that NY is a better choice.

https://www.aamc.org/system/files/2019-11/2019_FACTS_Table_A-20.pdf

https://www.aamc.org/system/files/2019-11/2019_FACTS_Table_A-5.pdf

@gyngyn -- I have been wondering about this for awhile -- hopefully you have some insight. Why do you think the FL IS matriculation rate is so low, given that MCAT mean is below the national average and that there doesn't seem to be a shortage of med schools relative to population (or is there?)? Do FL residents just have sub par stats as a a group, or is something else going on?

 

[gyngyn]

@gyngyn -- I have been wondering about this for awhile -- hopefully you have some insight. Why do you think the FL IS matriculation rate is so low, given that MCAT mean is below the national average and that there doesn't seem to be a shortage of med schools relative to population (or is there?)? Do FL residents just have sub par stats as a a group, or is something else going on?

I could only speculate.

 

[KnightDoc]

I could only speculate.

But your speculation is relatively informed! Is it as obvious as sub par stats, or is there something else I should be considering?

 

[gyngyn]

But your speculation is relatively informed! Is it as obvious as sub par stats, or is there something else I should be considering?

Speculation is the word you use in court so that you are not required to answer!

 

[Maimonides1]

@gyngyn -- I have been wondering about this for awhile -- hopefully you have some insight. Why do you think the FL IS matriculation rate is so low, given that MCAT mean is below the national average and that there doesn't seem to be a shortage of med schools relative to population (or is there?)? Do FL residents just have sub par stats as a a group, or is something else going on?

I am going to try to help here even though I am not an expert,
I don’t speculate as a practicing faculty and physician:

NewYork:
- Schools 15
- Applicants 3530
- Matriculants 1674
- Matriculation Rate IS 30.9
- MCAT 512.7

Florida:
- Schools 8
- Applicants 3493
- Matriculants 1189
- Matriculation Rate IS 20.3
- MCAT 510.7

Hope that helped !!

 

[KnightDoc]

I am going to try to help here even though I am not an expert,
I don’t speculate as a practicing faculty and physician:

NewYork:
- Schools 15
- Applicants 3530
- Matriculants 1674
- Matriculation Rate IS 30.9
- MCAT 512.7

Florida:
- Schools 8
- Applicants 3493
- Matriculants 1189
- Matriculation Rate IS 20.3
- MCAT 510.7

Hope that helped !!

Thanks for trying, since that's really all I can ask, but it doesn't help, since it points in two different directions.

FL has half the number of schools with the same number of applicants, so it has a lower IS matriculation rate, but its MCAT mean is so much lower, when everything indicates that it should be higher. So, the question remains - is the lower FL IS matriculation rate really a product of increased competition when its mean MCAT score of matriculants is 2 points lower than NY?

Am I looking at it wrong? At the end of the day, taking into account both IS and OOS matriculation rates, NY applicants have a 47.4% success rate as compared to 34% for FL. Is this because of a huge, unearned advantage NY residents have in IS admit rates, or because NY produces stronger applicants, as measured by MCAT scores? It seems like the latter, since NY also has a higher OOS matriculation rate than FL (16.4% compared to 13.8% -- this difference is not as large as that for IS, but that's because they are competing for roughly the same number of OOS schools).

At the end of the day, FL matriculants, despite lower accept rates, have a lower MCAT mean as compared to NY matriculants, so, it is possible to argue that a given FL applicant at or above the national MCAT mean for matriculated students actually would have an easier time gaining admission IS than a NY resident in NY with that same score (511.5).

 

[LizzyM]

I do think that NY may have a stronger pool of IS applicants.

I think that the question you want to ask is: Do I have a better chance getting into a Florida school as a NY applicant or into a NY school as a FL applicant? It makes sense that you will have an advantage at a FL school as a FL resident and at NY schools as a NY resident but the big question is how one choice or the other will impact your chances at the schools in the other state.

 

[KnightDoc]

I do think that NY may have a stronger pool of IS applicants.

I think that the question you want to ask is: Do I have a better chance getting into a Florida school as a NY applicant or into a NY school as a FL applicant? It makes sense that you will have an advantage at a FL school as a FL resident and at NY schools as a NY resident but the big question is how one choice or the other will impact your chances at the schools in the other state.

Yes, that was kind of OP's original question, but the responses veered off into pointing out how much better NY's IS matriculation rate was without taking into account that its matriculants have higher MCAT scores. I totally agree that each state's residents have some advantage in their own state. Beyond that, as an OOS candidate, unless some school has a regional preference, doesn't it just come down to how strong you are as compared to the rest of the OOS pool, without regard to what state you are from?

 

[LizzyM]

Yes, that was kind of OP's original question, but the responses veered off into pointing out how much better NY's IS matriculation rate was without taking into account that its matriculants have higher MCAT scores. I totally agree that each state's residents have some advantage in their own state. Beyond that, as an OOS candidate, unless some school has a regional preference, doesn't it just come down to how strong you are as compared to the rest of the OOS pool, without regard to what state you are from?

Some schools, I think, have an affinity for OOS students from areas that are familiar. Given that many New Yorkers gravitate to Florida, and many New Yorkers have family in Florida, there may be an affinity between the two that one does not see for applicants from Georgia or Delaware. Just a hunch.

 

[Maimonides1]

Thanks for trying, since that's really all I can ask, but it doesn't help, since it points in two different directions.

FL has half the number of schools with the same number of applicants, so it has a lower IS matriculation rate, but its MCAT mean is so much lower, when everything indicates that it should be higher. So, the question remains - is the lower FL IS matriculation rate really a product of increased competition when its mean MCAT score of matriculants is 2 points lower than NY?

Am I looking at it wrong? At the end of the day, taking into account both IS and OOS matriculation rates, NY applicants have a 47.4% success rate as compared to 34% for FL. Is this because of a huge, unearned advantage NY residents have in IS admit rates, or because NY produces stronger applicants, as measured by MCAT scores? It seems like the latter, since NY also has a higher OOS matriculation rate than FL (16.4% compared to 13.8% -- this difference is not as large as that for IS, but that's because they are competing for roughly the same number of OOS schools).

At the end of the day, FL matriculants, despite lower accept rates, have a lower MCAT mean as compared to NY matriculants, so, it is possible to argue that a given FL applicant at or above the national MCAT mean for matriculated students actually would have an easier time gaining admission IS than a NY resident in NY with that same score (511.5).

It all depends on how you slice it.., but I like to point out to you..
Matriculation rates are not all about: MCAT means, number of schools, number of seats and applicants..etc,
as you know there is more to it for each individual school : needs, mission and financial structure..etc,
Facts:
- MCAT scores 510.7 vs. 512.7 is just 5 percentile difference and is not the biggest factor in evaluating applicants holistically!
- FL applicants have higher GPA average than NY 3.74 vs. 3.69 !

 

[CowsRule]

It all depends on how you slice it.., but I like to point out to you..
Matriculation rates are not all about: MCAT means, number of schools, number of seats and applicants..etc,
as you know there is more to it for each individual school : needs, mission and financial structure..etc,
Facts:
- MCAT scores 510.7 vs. 512.7 is just 5 percentile difference and is not the biggest factor in evaluating applicants holistically!
- FL applicants have higher GPA average than NY 3.74 vs. 3.69 !

Thank you all for the responses! It was super helpful and I know a little bit better on what to do now

 

[sw99]

Hey guys! So I'm a born and raised floridian, went to highschool, college everything here.

However, I plan on moving to NY for americorps 1 year volunteer service and doing that for a gap year and THEN apply to NY medical schools (Only applying to Hofstra, NYMC, stony brook, sinai, suny downstate, albert einstein, NYIT, touro) because my boyfriend of 3 years and some family live in downstate NY now. (First cousins and Aunts) I would really prefer to stay in NY and go to the schools there. My parents are divorced so one of my parents will be coming with me to NY my mom staying in Florida.
I'm confused on one thing: Residency.

1. Would I qualify to be a NY state resident and should I declare myself as a resident or keep FL residency?
2. How will it affect me if I'm a NY resident if so, as in will it give me more of a chance to go to NY med schools (the ones I mentioned only) and would it be worth it to do that, and just state strong in state ties to Florida if I apply to medical schools there?
3. Should I instead apply as a florida resident to NY schools and Florida schools, and will me working in NY for a year count as strong ties to the state/give me a better chance to instate schools?

I'll be applying with a 3.8 gpa non-sci major and hopefully 516 MCAT female south asian ORM.
I have all the checkboxes. With Americorps over 1k non-clinical volunteer hours, 2 years clinical experience, 2 years research with no pubs and 2 posters. President of the Social Work Student Association, Vice President of the Speech/Gavel Club, Mentoring for a year, Working at a free clinic, etc.

There are plenty of med schools in FL. Why don't you go to school there?

 

[CowsRule]

There are plenty of med schools in FL. Why don't you go to school there?

My fiance and extended fam lives in NY, I plan on moving there and applying