People familiar with declaring a state of residence on AMCAS, what are your thoughts on my situation?

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DrippingNeverTripping

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So I have an interesting situation on my hands. I was born and raised in the US (Kentucky) but moved overseas with my family and graduated high school in the United Arab Emirates before coming to the US alone for uni where I now am in Michigan. To make my situation even more complicated, my family has recently moved back to the US ( KY) and I file as a dependent. My question is, what state would I be considered a resident of? I graduate in December of this year and plan on applying in the 2023-2024 cycle and will start working in Michigan from august 2022 till med school matriculation (assuming I get accepted in the 2023 cycle). I got my driver's license in Michigan and I am not registered to vote in any state. I've also signed my apartment lease in MI till August 2023.

I can see one argument being that if I wasn't studying in Michigan to begin with I'd be with my family in Kentucky and thus I am a KY resident. I also file as a dependent and my parents are in KY so that would make sense.

I can also see another argument being that since I studied and graduated in MI + got my drivers license here + will be working here for around ~1.5 years (and thus file taxes in MI) I would be considered a Michigan resident.

Regardless of residency, could I claim to have strong ties to both states? Which state has a stronger IS bias? Cheers

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Interesting choice. I would check the policies for residency with the programs to see how you fall in. If you moved overseas and graduated at an American/International HS in the UAE, does this mean you are the dependent of a military family? That information may be helpful, especially if you emailed the admissions folks at the schools of interest. You also may want to check on DO schools at those states.

As it stands, I think Michigan will have more medical schools (including privates) and thus more seats if you had a choice on where to declare. But you may want to know if being in-state Kentucky is where you are best situated as an in-state candidate.
 
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Having graduated from college and getting a full-time job and having a driver's license and a lease on a place to live, will you still be a dependent?
You might be financially on your own given your age and employment in Michigan (if that's where you get a job). I guess you could move back with your parents and get a job in Kentucky, get a kentucky driver's license, and claim Kentucky residence having only been in Michigan to attend school.

Either way, for goodness sake, register to vote if you are eligible.

Your situation is not that uncommon (I think that youngsters like you growing up are called "third culture kids"). Fortunately, because your folks are back in the States, you do have someplace Stateside to call home.
 
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Interesting choice. I would check the policies for residency with the programs to see how you fall in. If you moved overseas and graduated at an American/International HS in the UAE, does this mean you are the dependent of a military family? That information may be helpful, especially if you emailed the admissions folks at the schools of interest. You also may want to check on DO schools at those states.

As it stands, I think Michigan will have more medical schools (including privates) and thus more seats if you had a choice on where to declare. But you may want to know if being in-state Kentucky is where you are best situated as an in-state candidate.
Ya, I definitely think emailing schools of interest is a great idea. My family isn't actually a military family but I'll spare you all the details. The reason why I was asking this was that in theory, I do have the power to decide where I can declare residency as LizzyM mentioned with moving back to KY and getting a job there. So if it is more advantageous to stay in MI, I'll just stay here. But if it's more advantageous to go to KY then I could make it work but it'll definitely take a hit to the number of clinical hours I would have when applying alongside research hours and future pubs. I got super lucky freshman and found a great mentor who has taught me a lot and been extremely supportive. They've also included me as a co-author on a paper they published that I spent all of my time freshman year helping with and there are many more projects that I can help with and eventually get published. So I'd definitely much prefer to stay in MI but I'll consider the move to KY. Thanks a lot!
 
Having graduated from college and getting a full-time job and having a driver's license and a lease on a place to live, will you still be a dependent?
You might be financially on your own given your age and employment in Michigan (if that's where you get a job). I guess you could move back with your parents and get a job in Kentucky, get a kentucky driver's license, and claim Kentucky residence having only been in Michigan to attend school.

Either way, for goodness sake, register to vote if you are eligible.

Your situation is not that uncommon (I think that youngsters like you growing up are called "third culture kids"). Fortunately, because your folks are back in the States, you do have someplace Stateside to call home.
That's a good point. I guess after all that I would be most likely filing as an independent. I do plan on registering to vote and fulfilling my civic duty of voting so no worries about that!

Hahaha "third culture kids" is a term I've never heard but perfectly describes my situation. I've moved around for basically every phase of my education spending elementary in US-KY, middle school in a different country, high school in a different country, and uni back to the US-MI. I definitely think that after all that, US is where I call home and it's good to be back.

Now I wonder, do you think that my moving around this much could be seen as unfavorable/favorable by adcom? It has definitely played a large part in who I am and I've learned a lot of lessons that I don't think I otherwise would have learned had I stayed in KY. I'm also definitely going to be prioritizing schools that aim to have a diverse student body (which after looking at several schools' mission statements doesn't really narrow it down lol).
 
Residents of KY get a big IS boost, matriculating 43% of their KY applicants with a mere 508.2 mean MCAT.
MI residents have little IS advantage, matriculating only 25% with a substantially higher MCAT, 511.3.

If you have a choice go for KY.
Wow, that's quite a significant difference! What would you do if you were in my situation (see the info I replied to Mr. Smile12)? Is it worth sacrificing future pubs/research experience and having a small halt in clinical hours to move to KY? Now this makes the idea of moving back to KY a lot more intriguing.

With that having been said, thank you for this information, and thanks once again to Mr. Smile12 and LizzyM!
 
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Wow, that's quite a significant difference! What would you do if you were in my situation (see the info I replied to Mr. Smile12)? Is it worth sacrificing future pubs/research experience and having a small halt in clinical hours to move to KY? Now this makes the idea of moving back to KY a lot more intriguing.

With that having been said, thank you for this information, and thanks once again to Mr. Smile12 and LizzyM!
Most successful applicants have no publications at all, even at some very fancy medical schools. Research experience is mostly to be able to understand the place of hypothesis-driven research in the practice of medicine.

What almost all successful applicants have is a compelling narrative supported by evidence.
You lose nothing if you turn out to be a blockbuster applicant applying from KY. You might not even get a nibble as a fair to good applicant from MI.
 
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Take the KY residency. You have two good options there in University of Louisville and University of Kentucky, both of which are predominantly for IS students. Many of the Michigan schools take a lot of OOS students actually
 
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Having had experiences living in different countries and among people of different cultures, customs and languages shows adaptability and has, perhaps, opened your mind to the idea that there are different ways of doing things. (Someone who moved around to different parts of the US might have had similar experiences.) This can be a plus or, at least, something that makes you "interesting" and someone we might enjoy interviewing (adcoms love novelty as long as all the usual components are there, too).
 
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