Please help me make a decision... Oregon or Washington residency status?

[lohwey1210]

I live in Portland, OR, and I plan on applying MD and DO in a couple of cycles.

I am about to move into a new apartment with my partner, and we don't know if we should make the move to the Washington side of the river, or stay in Oregon, so to claim residency in the state where I would be most likely to get some admissions love.

I am nontraditional. (32 year old... massive upward trend: 2.0> GPA for 2 years in art school a decade ago, then 4.0 in psych for past 4 years, end of BS and post-bac... hundreds of hours shadowing, volunteering... been through a lot, but my commitment to medicine is apparent to everyone who knows me... haven't taken MCAT yet)... I supply that information so that it might help you, the readers, get an idea of where I am more likely to get in and, subsequently, succeed.

Should I shoot for UW or OHSU?

Washington has more than one medical school, yes? Shouldn't that deter me from staying in Oregon, so that I can gain access to the in-state residency status of being a WA native? Or should I bank on OHSU, since I know some of the folks who work in an administrative/ admissions capacity there?

I am concerned about cost. But, more than that, I am worried about acceptance. My stats are unusual.

Your opinions are appreciated.

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[500miles]

I live in Portland, OR, and I plan on applying MD and DO in a couple of cycles.

I am about to move into a new apartment with my partner, and we don't know if we should make the move to the Washington side of the river, or stay in Oregon, so to claim residency in the state where I would be most likely to get some admissions love.

I am nontraditional. (32 year old... massive upward trend: 2.0> GPA for 2 years in art school a decade ago, then 4.0 in psych for past 4 years, end of BS and post-bac... hundreds of hours shadowing, volunteering... been through a lot, but my commitment to medicine is apparent to everyone who knows me... haven't taken MCAT yet)... I supply that information so that it might help you, the readers, get an idea of where I am more likely to get in and, subsequently, succeed.

Should I shoot for UW or OHSU?

Washington has more than one medical school, yes? Shouldn't that deter me from staying in Oregon, so that I can gain access to the in-state residency status of being a WA native? Or should I bank on OHSU, since I know some of the folks who work in an administrative/ admissions capacity there?

I am concerned about cost. But, more than that, I am worried about acceptance. My stats are unusual.

Your opinions are appreciated.

I dont have any solid answers, but I know that OHSU LOVES nontrads and is highly instate favorable. So it might be worth it to stay there. Oregon also has a couple(1?) Of DO schools as well. If you move to Washington you will be competing with all of the WWAMI states for UW which may be more competitive than just competing with Oregon residents. Spokane has a med school but they accept OOS students so I dont think you would have a great advantage moving there. There is atleast 1 DO school in washington. I think overall I'd stay in Oregon if I were you. But I have no real facts or numbers to back that up so I'd dig around on the MSAR to look at actual numbers.

Also, will you be applying to schools all over the country? Unfortunately living out west has some limitations. California is mostly not a great option for OOS and OR,WA dont have enough schools to bank on. Your chances of getting into UW is also slim to non as OOS resident. So you'd be looking at OHSU/spokane/OR,WA DO schools. I guess my point is that you will probably not want to put a lot of stock into just getting into schools in OR or WA.

 

[Mt Kilimanjaro]

Stay in Portland.

 

[treatem-and-streetem]

I am from the great pacific northwest as well...stay in portland apply to OHSU and the DO schools in oregon.

 

[BombsAway]

Move to WA. I think they do a great job with admissions and are as non-trad favorable as possible. This choice would also allow you to "double dip". You could apply on amcas as a WA resident and get a good shot at UW. Plus, applying to OHSU with your oregon background may fall into one of their "mission" categories as defined here: Academic and Selection Factors

 

[500miles]

Move to WA. I think they do a great job with admissions and are as non-trad favorable as possible. This choice would also allow you to "double dip". You could apply on amcas as a WA resident and get a good shot at UW. Plus, applying to OHSU with your oregon background may fall into one of their "mission" categories as defined here: Academic and Selection Factors

This is a good point. Just keep in mind that OHSU heritage mission Policy will not give you instate tuition if you go that route. However, you would get instate tuition for UW on the other hand. Moving to WA is not a bad idea.

 

[ShadowGryffin]

On a purely numerical basis, Washington has more medical schools than Oregon:

• WA - UW, WSU, PNWCOM
• OR - OHSU, COMP-NW

Also UW has more incoming seats than OHSU (270 vs. 160), so again on a numbers basis WA is better.

On the other hand, I don't know how many of those 270 seats are reserved for Washington residents vs. WAMI residents. In addition WSU ESFCOM is a very new program and only takes 60 Washingtonians (and has a ridiculously long abbreviation).

Really, it just comes down to one critical factor: Do you want to pump gas yourself or have someone do it for you?

 

[500miles]

On a purely numerical basis, Washington has more medical schools than Oregon:

• WA - UW, WSU, PNWCOM
• OR - OHSU, COMP-NW

Also UW has more incoming seats than OHSU (270 vs. 160), so again on a numbers basis WA is better.

On the other hand, I don't know how many of those 270 seats are reserved for Washington residents vs. WAMI residents. In addition WSU ESFCOM is a very new program and only takes 60 Washingtonians (and has a ridiculously long abbreviation).

Really, it just comes down to one critical factor: Do you want to pump gas yourself or have someone do it for you?

Haha that's great