What are the best and worst states to be residents of?

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i feel pretty lucky to be in IL . . . UIC admits 30 % of in state apps, and there are six other schools to apply to also (some of them give a slight edge to instate like loyola and U of C, northwestern doesn't.)

that said, i'm dyin' to get out of the state. but its nice to know that if i dont get in anywhere else, at least my chance at UIC should be reasonable.
 
MaryLennox said:
i feel pretty lucky to be in IL . . . UIC admits 30 % of in state apps, and there are six other schools to apply to also (some of them give a slight edge to instate like loyola and U of C, northwestern doesn't.)

that said, i'm dyin' to get out of the state. but its nice to know that if i dont get in anywhere else, at least my chance at UIC should be reasonable.
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seriously, you're excited about 30%?

texas requires all classes to be composed of at minimum 90% residents. the facilities are top notch and tuition is probably the lowest that you will encounter, not to mention the low cost of living here. plus, there are 6, soon to be 7, schools.

nothing is a guarantee though as applicant numbers have risen and i've seen a bunch of qualified people not get in.
 
Jolie South said:
seriously, you're excited about 30%?

texas requires all classes to be composed of at minimum 90% residents. the facilities are top notch and tuition is probably the lowest that you will encounter, not to mention the low cost of living here.

nothing is a guarantee though as applicant numbers have risen and i've seen a bunch of qualified people not get in.
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I think they are saying 30% of in-staters who apply get in, not they only have 30% in-state students.
 
Canada tops, with only 23% of people getting in although I must mention that we are not a state...
 
Jolie South said:
how many apps do they get? that doesn't make sense to me.
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For UIC, it's closer to 22% of in staters that get in. From US News, 1,658 in staters applied and they accepted 371 of them.

California is by far the worst state to be a resident of. There are too many awesome applicants here.
 
mikkey said:
Canada tops, with only 23% of people getting in although I must mention that we are not a state...
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Well then Ontario. It's something like 19% of people are accepted. Canada is crazy competitive. I'm not totally sure of what the reasons are, but I think that we might have a higher number of Bachelor's degree holders per capita.
 
Jolie South said:
seriously, you're excited about 30%?

texas requires all classes to be composed of at minimum 90% residents. the facilities are top notch and tuition is probably the lowest that you will encounter, not to mention the low cost of living here. plus, there are 6, soon to be 7, schools.

nothing is a guarantee though as applicant numbers have risen and i've seen a bunch of qualified people not get in.
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👍🙂
 
I gotta say NY and TX are two of the best. With something like 12 schools to apply to and the whole spectrum of admission competitiveness, I'm one happy new yorker.
 
Cataract said:
I gotta say NY and TX are two of the best. With something like 12 schools to apply to and the whole spectrum of admission competitiveness, I'm one happy new yorker.
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There's a lot of schools but also a lot of applicants competing for each seat.
 
Off the top of my head...

Good places to reside in: Ohio, Illinois, Texas
Bad places to reside in: California, Canada
 
Good states: New York, Illinois, Texas, Ohio
Bad states: California, Canada (as a non-state 🙂)

Most everywhere else is in between, with some states definitely being better than others (in my opinion, MI is slowly crawling towards the bottom of the list, but I'm biased).
 
Jolie South said:
[The tuition in TX is] the lowest that you will encounter, not to mention the low cost of living here.
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yah, and what's up with baylor being so low- they're private, right? State funded anyway?
 
DrBowtie said:
Fact: WV is the best.
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is Marshall all in-staters? You would think their stats would be higher if they took applicants from all over.
 
Jolie South said:
seriously, you're excited about 30%?

texas requires all classes to be composed of at minimum 90% residents. the facilities are top notch and tuition is probably the lowest that you will encounter, not to mention the low cost of living here. plus, there are 6, soon to be 7, schools.

nothing is a guarantee though as applicant numbers have risen and i've seen a bunch of qualified people not get in.
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As far as chances and tuition goes, I'd say Texas is the best. A lot of schools, and in state tuition is very low. However, you'd have to live in Texas (gasp!). Just kidding, sort of 😉.

However, I'm a big fan of being a California resident. There are a reasonable amount of schools, and I wouldn't say that it's all that hard to get in to one of them if you put together a good application. And while it sure isn't easy, the payoff is so big. You get to pay in-state tuition to go to a great school in California. Academics, lifestyle, tuition costs, weather all can't be beat.
 
Jolie South said:
Exactly! Low cost of living. Good luck to folks living in DC, SF, or NY.
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Hey, places like Syracuse and Albany have a fairly low cost of living, too. And what about clinical experience and lifestyle? If you're city folk, you might be willing to pay a little extra for those fruits of NYC.
 
Cataract said:
Hey, places like Syracuse and Albany have a fairly low cost of living, too. And what about clinical experience and lifestyle? If you're city folk, you might be willing to pay a little extra for those fruits of NYC.
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Houston is the 4th largest city in the US, but I digress. While it's not NYC, it's far from Smalltown, USA.

I'm just saying if you're paying for all of this with loans, you might have to sacrifice and live with like 3 roommates to afford a place. If you're willing to do that, great. I just would not be willing to pay $1800/mo for an efficiency in Georgetown or live with roommates as I'm married.

Clinical experience are you kidding me? The Texas Medical Center in Houston is the largest medical center IN THE WORLD. The other schools have less, but still nothing to scoff at. San Antonio and Dallas especially have great facilities as well.
 
Mbekweni said:
As far as chances and tuition goes, I'd say Texas is the best. A lot of schools, and in state tuition is very low. However, you'd have to live in Texas (gasp!). Just kidding, sort of 😉.

However, I'm a big fan of being a California resident. There are a reasonable amount of schools, and I wouldn't say that it's all that hard to get in to one of them if you put together a good application. And while it sure isn't easy, the payoff is so big. You get to pay in-state tuition to go to a great school in California. Academics, lifestyle, tuition costs, weather all can't be beat.
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😱 Ya, if your application consists of a 3.7+ GPA and a 34+ MCAT, sure it's not "all that hard" to get in. But not all of us were robots in college 😉
 
Daydreamer2008 said:
😱 Ya, if your application consists of a 3.7+ GPA and a 34+ MCAT, sure it's not "all that hard" to get in. But not all of us were robots in college 😉
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It's more like "not all of us were Californians in college." 😛
 
Jolie South said:
Houston is the 4th largest city in the US, but I digress.

I'm just saying if you're paying for all of this with loans, you might have to sacrifice and live with like 3 roommates to afford a place. If you're willing to do that, great. I just would not be willing to pay $1800/mo for an efficiency in Georgetown.

Clinical experience are you kidding me? The Texas Medical Center in Houston is the largest medical center IN THE WORLD. The other schools have less, but still nothing to scoff at. San Antonio and Dallas especially have great facilities as well.
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What I meant by clinical experience was clinical exposure. The Texas Medical Center in Houston is awesome, really. It would be great working in there wouldn't it? But honestly, you could combine Houston and the next 4 biggest cities in TX and not come close to the population, and probably patient diversity, of the NYC area. And it's not too shabby on quality of facilities either.

Paying that much for housing isn't cool, what can I say. But it goes hand and hand with big city living and the lifestyle those people prefer.
 
Cataract said:
What I meant by clinical experience was clinical exposure. The Texas Medical Center in Houston is awesome, really. It would be great working in there wouldn't it? But honestly, you could combine Houston and the next 4 biggest cities in TX and not come close to the population, and probably patient diversity, of the NYC area. And it's not too shabby on quality of facilities either.

Paying that much for housing isn't cool, what can I say. But it goes hand and hand with big city living and the lifestyle those people prefer.
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Houston actually has a very diverse patient population (Hispanics, displaced New Orleanians, African immigrants, Asian immigrants), as several of my interviewers there told me. There are people that fly in to specifically be treated there.

At Baylor, in particular, you're exposed to more facilities and practice settings than other schools that I've interviewed at. For instance, you need to do 3 months worth of rotations in medicine. At Baylor, you do one month at the VA, one month at the county hospital, and one month at a private facility. This is a serious amount of diversity that I don't think students at a lot of schools get. And, all the facilities are within a few blocks of each other.

I'm not knocking NYC. I know there are great schools and facilities there. I just personally don't like people attacking Texas because it's Texas. Saying that the educational opportunities are less is just ludicrous, especially when Baylor and UT Southwestern are two highly regarded schools (US News 10 and 19 respectively). Mind you that students at each of these schools will also pay significantly less as well as the schools receive STATE funding. Average indebtedness at Baylor is $77k.
 
I have to throw Louisiana into the mix as one of the best. 2 state schools and 1 private school.
 
Jolie South said:
Houston actually has a very diverse patient population (Hispanics, displaced New Orleanians, African immigrants, Asian immigrants), as several of my interviewers there told me. There are people that fly in to specifically be treated there.

At Baylor, in particular, you're exposed to more facilities and practice settings than other schools that I've interviewed at. For instance, you need to do 3 months worth of rotations in medicine. At Baylor, you do one month at the VA, one month at the county hospital, and one month at a private facility. This is a serious amount of diversity that I don't think students at a lot of schools get. And, all the facilities are within a few blocks of each other.
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Hey, congrats on Baylor by the way. It sounds amazing and I'm jealous 😛

You can make a list of any city's diversity and go on for a long time. But percentages are where it counts. And even still, Houston probably has a decent spread. But it's NYC. The waiting room in NY-Presbyterian in Harlem would be more eclectic. The types of cases that get brought in would be more diverse. Maybe without those rotations at different hospitals in TX, the tune of cases would be pretty monotonic. I can't comment on the details of clinical rotations of NYC schools, I have no clue.

I'm definitely not knocking TX. I just said TX and NY are two of the best states to be of residence. I was just commenting on what you gain by paying more for cost of living in NY.
 
New Hampshire (mystate), Vermont, and Maine. 2 hard to get into MD schools and 1 D.O school between 3 states. Not to mention it's cold as hell here, been snowing for 4 days now 🙄
 
Mbekweni said:
However, I'm a big fan of being a California resident. There are a reasonable amount of schools, and I wouldn't say that it's all that hard to get in to one of them if you put together a good application. And while it sure isn't easy, the payoff is so big. You get to pay in-state tuition to go to a great school in California. Academics, lifestyle, tuition costs, weather all can't be beat.
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of the california schools the lowest average matriculation score is from UC Davis with a 31 MCAT and 3.61 GPA. thats the lowest. according to princeton review.

your other options? UCLA, UCSD, Stanford, UCSF, and Western if you want to go DO......

YIKES. "woudn't say its all that hard" is a bit of an understatement. if i got in to any CA school i would lose my mind. itd be a dream come true.
 
Cataract said:
You can make a list of any city's diversity and go on for a long time. But percentages are where it counts. And even still, Houston probably has a decent spread. But it's NYC. The waiting room in NY-Presbyterian in Harlem would be more eclectic. The types of cases that get brought in would be more diverse. Maybe without those rotations at different hospitals in TX, the tune of cases would be pretty monotonic. I can't comment on the details of clinical rotations of NYC schools, I have no clue.

I'm definitely not knocking TX. I just said TX and NY are two of the best states to be of residence. I was just commenting on what you gain by paying more for cost of living in NY.
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I respectfully disagree. This diversity isn't in different sites all over the state, it's in one city within a 5 block radius. Maybe you should check this out before making assumptions. This is not me just being proud of Texas here. It IS an amazing place. It is not a POS backwoods 100 bed hospital.

I'm sure NYC is great. I'm not doubting that. I'm just saying that for many people in this country it isn't the end all be all. I think that you should think about that before insulting the opportunities available to others elsewhere.
 
Currently and in the past :
Best - Texas
Worst - California


Future :
Best - Florida
Worst - California


*Florida will displace Texas because of the 2 new schools in addition to the 5 (if you count the 2 Miami schools separately) already established and well thought of schools.

Texas is pretty damn sweet though. I would love to have UTSW as my state school and Baylor as my reach private school. 🙄

Someone may site stats about how it is statistically easier to get into to WVU or Marshall, or whatever, but fact is both Texas and Florida have some great schools.
 
Sorry to everyone. I don't mean to be inflammatory.

I just don't like people telling me that they know the state I've lived in for 20+ years better than I do.

I respect that it isn't for everyone, and I do agree that it has its downsides. 🙂
 
Jolie South said:
I respectfully disagree. This diversity isn't in different sites all over the state, it's in one city within a 5 block radius. Maybe you should check this out before making assumptions. This is not me just being proud of Texas here. It IS an amazing place. It is not a POS backwoods 100 bed hospital.

I'm sure NYC is great. I'm not doubting that. I'm just saying that for many people in this country it isn't the end all be all. I think that you should think about that before insulting the opportunities available to others elsewhere.
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Ouch, Jolie. Well I think we have a misunderstanding. I didn't say NY is a better state than elsewhere because of it's greater diversity. You listed a lot of great opportunities exclusive for Texans yourself and I agreed. It's amazing. The cost of living sucks here compared to other parts of the country, like you said. But if I can't at least say NYC offers diversity, then I give. I was using Harlem as a microcosm for the city. The diversity certainly isn't all over the state, but its not just in a 5 block radius either.
 
If you're looking for straight up stats, Nevada is actually pretty good. They only have a class size of about 50 but they also only have about 200 applicants due to extremely harsh in-state residency requirements. Basically a 25% acceptance rate.
 
Alabama should be on the "best" list. UASOM has a ~42% acceptance rate, ~15k tuition, is consistently in the top 30 of USNWR's research ranking, and has an average MCAT of only slightly above a 30.
 
edit
 
worst: RI

no true "state" schools, so no home advantage at all. 🙁
 
theWestVillage said:
If you're looking for straight up stats, Nevada is actually pretty good. They only have a class size of about 50 but they also only have about 200 applicants due to extremely harsh in-state residency requirements. Basically a 25% acceptance rate.
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According to MSAR, 154 in state applicants applied and 51 matriculated. Assuming they over-accepted, I bet their acceptance rate is over 50%!
 
Alaska has to be near the top of the best list. How many applicant's from Alaska have you met? I felt like some med schools were drooling over me, like some rare token. Plus we get 10, soon to be 20, guaranteed seats at UW ... can't beat that if you don't mind training with a bunch of non-traditional students ... I kinda prefer people near my age. We also have some of the highest pay levels and lowest rates of malpractice litigation.

Downside: It's dark and freaking cold half the year.
 
ahaydt said:
No one said Pennsylvania. To be competitive at most PA schools I'd say a 32 and 3.6 are pretty much mandatory.
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PA definitely is on the "bad" side. Several med schools, but none of them (not even PSU) favor their own residents to the extent most schools elsewhere schools do. I'm not so sure your figure of 32 MCAT is spot on, but I haven't done the appropriate legwork. PA's not nearly as tough as CA, but it certainly feels like PA residents are left out to dry.

And possibly even worse than the admissions practices of PA schools is the financial issues. As a PA resident, the cheapest you can possibly go to school for (considering tuition straight-up, and without somehow gaining residency status in another state ) is PSU at over $30,000. Every other PA school pretty much approaches or exceeds $40,000 even for PA residents, and any other OOS school you'll be paying, on average, $40,000+.

Sucks.
 
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