Interesting question on residency LORs

Ok, so once I graduate, I’m pretty much deadset on moving to Florida if I can get a job with my degree that’ll at least pay the bills…partially because I’ve lived in California my own life and Florida’s the only other state I would be caught dead in, and primarily because the diving there is simply incredible from what I hear.


So I have two questions. The first is on residency. The Florida med schools state that you must be a Florida resident for 12 consecutive months or more by time of matriculation to be considered a Florida resident for tuition purposes. Their definition of a Florida resident is someone who lives (does not just own property) continuously in Florida, works full-time, and does not go to school. Well, I’m not sure I will be working full-time, I’ll be getting whatever work I can get if I do move, but think that’ll be good enough? I plan to take 1-2 years off after I graduate so it’ll easily be over 12 months by the time I’d matriculate.


The second question is on LORs…what should I do about these since it’ll be a couple years after I graduate before I apply? I doubt the professors will remember one student out of the hundreds they have a couple years after the fact. Should I just get the LORs and store them on Interfolio? What should I do about the committee letter since UC Davis does them?


Any advice will be helpful, thanks!

It would seem good to get LORs if you can now and save them, on Interfolio or elsewhere.


To clarify, your plan is to move to Florida for 1-2 years post-pre-reqs and work as you can? And you will not be taking courses? I’d imagine that you will have to find full-time work to pay the bills.


Despite having relocated to FL several years ago, I can’t really speak for the residency requirements. I’d imagine the big thing is that you’re productive in Florida (working or whatever); have your DL, voters’ reg, etc here; and are not being supported by anybody outside of the state. From what I understand, you’ll want to be especially careful about the last part - make sure that any money you get from parents or whatever is considered kosher by residency standards.


Where in Florida are you looking to move? I’d imagine the gulf coast, if you’re looking at warm water…

  • pi1304 Said:
It would seem good to get LORs if you can now and save them, on Interfolio or elsewhere.

To clarify, your plan is to move to Florida for 1-2 years post-pre-reqs and work as you can? And you will not be taking courses? I'd imagine that you will have to find full-time work to pay the bills.

Despite having relocated to FL several years ago, I can't really speak for the residency requirements. I'd imagine the big thing is that you're productive in Florida (working or whatever); have your DL, voters' reg, etc here; and are not being supported by anybody outside of the state. From what I understand, you'll want to be especially careful about the last part - make sure that any money you get from parents or whatever is considered kosher by residency standards.

Where in Florida are you looking to move? I'd imagine the gulf coast, if you're looking at warm water...



Yes, I would move to Florida for 1-2 years after graduation, so definitely post-pre reqs and all that stuff. I would definitely not be taking any classes since the whole point would be to unwind from college. and yeah I'm sure I'll have to work full-time at the very least to pay bills since I'll have a $300-345 college loan payment on top of what I have now.

I'll definitely do all that stuff if I can pull off moving to Florida. I plan to get a Florida DL, register to vote in the county of Florida I reside in, work full-time, file Florida state income taxes, etc. I've heard that Miami and the Keys are actually great diving, the water temperature there is about 85 degrees in the summer, however it's very expensive to live there. I've been looking at Tampa or St. Petersburg as an alternative because it's far more reasonable as far as cost of living goes, and Miami's only a few hours drive from there anyway. Plus I'm sure there's plenty of good diving around Tampa anyhow.

My big hangup right now is finding a full-time job that pays enough so it'd be worthit. Everything I'm hearing about how useless a science degree and how one can't get a job paying much above 11-12/hr isn't very encouraging. I ran the numbers and figured I'd have to at least make 15/hr just to pay bills, so it'd actually have to be a couple bucks an hour above that just to be worth the PITA of moving; plus if I don't have money to dive then it negates the point of moving in the first place. I would imagine that someone should at least get a job at about 35K/yr starting anyway with a bachelor, considering how much frickin' money we have to dump just to get the degree. but yeah it'll definitely depend on the job market. I'll probably do SCUBA classes on the side if I'm able to become an instructor by then, but that'll probably be extra money as opposed to my main source of income.

Cost of living is fairly low in FL, but it’s hard to find a job that pays well. I can say that, coming from Cali, your pay expectations won’t be met in Florida. At least there are no state income taxes .


Tampa’s an interesting place; I’m still trying to get a feel for it.


If you want to chat a bit more about Florida, please drop me a PM, and we can discuss some more details and employment and such.

Look into substitute teaching. For that matter, you might check out Teach For America. A great way to spend a couple of years, and a nice feather in your cap for future applications (i.e. med school). Best of luck,

Teach For America (TFA) needs applicants for their expansion sites. One of their expansion site is Jacksonville, Fla. Maimi-Dade is another TFA site. You will find the link here: Teach For America

  • eagleeye Said:
Teach For America (TFA) needs applicants for their expansion sites. One of their expansion site is Jacksonville, Fla. Maimi-Dade is another TFA site. You will find the link here: Teach For America



Yeah, somehow I don't think substitute teachers are going to make 15/hr or more though, so feather in the cap or not I wouldn't be able to pay my bills.

I don’t how you feel about teaching in general. Here is the information on starting teacher’s salary in Jacksonville and Miami-Dade just FYI.


You would be the teacher of record if you are accepted in Teach For America (TFA)–not a substitute. If it sounds like I’m an advocate for TFA, you were right. I wanted to apply for TFA back in 2000. It turned out that it was late in the application cycle and they weren’t accepting any more applications. Undeterred, I applied in an Alternative Certification (AC) program in a large urban district in North Texas.


I’m still teaching science at this school district.

  • eagleeye Said:
I don't how you fell about teaching in general. Here is the information on starting teacher's salary in Jacksonville and Miami-Dade just FYI.

You would be the teacher of record if you are accepted in Teach For America (TFA)--not a substitute. If it sounds like I'm an advocate for TFA, you were right. I wanted to apply for TFA back in 2000. It turned out that it was late in the application cycle and they wern't accepting any more applications. Undeterred, I applied in an Alternative Certification (AC) program in a large urban district in North Texas.

I'm still teaching science at this school district.



Hmm, well according to those links the starting teacher salary is 35K for Jacksonville, FL and 38-40K for Miami, FL? That's actually not bad, that would work. I think I would like teaching, as far as that goes. Hell, I want to become a SCUBA instructor after all, and I certainly would not want to do that if I had any reservations about teaching.

So what's the specifics on TFA? How is it different from a regular teacher position at a school, since they're a separate entity so I'm guessing they serve a different school of some sort. Interview process, how often they do application cycles, what minimum qualifications you need, etc.?

This is not really an answer to your question BUT you might find it interesting… The University of Central Florida in Oralando will be opening a Med School and the first 40 students attend for free! I called to verify, it is REAL! Do a Google search… BTW you don’t need t be a resident of FL t apply…


Gwen

  • Tim Said:
  • eagleeye Said:
I don't how you feel about teaching in general. Here is the information on starting teacher's salary in Jacksonville and Miami-Dade just FYI.

You would be the teacher of record if you are accepted in Teach For America (TFA)--not a substitute. If it sounds like I'm an advocate for TFA, you were right. I wanted to apply for TFA back in 2000. It turned out that it was late in the application cycle and they wern't accepting any more applications. Undeterred, I applied in an Alternative Certification (AC) program in a large urban district in North Texas.

I'm still teaching science at this school district.



Hmm, well according to those links the starting teacher salary is 35K for Jacksonville, FL and 38-40K for Miami, FL? That's actually not bad, that would work. I think I would like teaching, as far as that goes. Hell, I want to become a SCUBA instructor after all, and I certainly would not want to do that if I had any reservations about teaching.

So what's the specifics on TFA? How is it different from a regular teacher position at a school, since they're a separate entity so I'm guessing they serve a different school of some sort. Interview process, how often they do application cycles, what minimum qualifications you need, etc.?



Teach For America was intended to address teaching shortages in low income school districts. Many schools have to rely on using long term substitutes to fill teaching vacancies. TFA would place a highly qualified teacher in that vacancy. According to their website, "18,000 individuals applied to Teach For America. Approximately 2,900 were accepted and placed in 26 regions across the country." They have four deadlines for you to choose from. In the last cycle, the deadlines for online application were on September 21, 2007; November 2, 2007; January 4, 2008; and February 15, 2008.

If you are selected for an interview, you will be given a phone interview. If you pass muster, then you will be invited for a final interview. TFA emphasizes that "not all applicants are invited to an interview."

The bare bone requirements are Bachelor's degree and gpa 2.50+.


  • eagleeye Said:
  • Tim Said:
  • eagleeye Said:
I don't how you feel about teaching in general. Here is the information on starting teacher's salary in Jacksonville and Miami-Dade just FYI.

You would be the teacher of record if you are accepted in Teach For America (TFA)--not a substitute. If it sounds like I'm an advocate for TFA, you were right. I wanted to apply for TFA back in 2000. It turned out that it was late in the application cycle and they wern't accepting any more applications. Undeterred, I applied in an Alternative Certification (AC) program in a large urban district in North Texas.

I'm still teaching science at this school district.



Hmm, well according to those links the starting teacher salary is 35K for Jacksonville, FL and 38-40K for Miami, FL? That's actually not bad, that would work. I think I would like teaching, as far as that goes. Hell, I want to become a SCUBA instructor after all, and I certainly would not want to do that if I had any reservations about teaching.

So what's the specifics on TFA? How is it different from a regular teacher position at a school, since they're a separate entity so I'm guessing they serve a different school of some sort. Interview process, how often they do application cycles, what minimum qualifications you need, etc.?



Teach For America was intended to address teaching shortages in low income school districts. Many schools have to rely on using long term substitutes to fill teaching vacancies. TFA would place a highly qualified teacher in that vacancy. According to their website, "18,000 individuals applied to Teach For America. Approximately 2,900 were accepted and placed in 26 regions across the country." They have four deadlines for you to choose from. In the last cycle, the deadlines for online application were on September 21, 2007; November 2, 2007; January 4, 2008; and February 15, 2008.

If you are selected for an interview, you will be given a phone interview. If you pass muster, then you will be invited for a final interview. TFA emphasizes that "not all applicants are invited to an interview."

The bare bone requirements are Bachelor's degree and gpa 2.50+.





The only thing that makes me wonder about low-income areas is whether the tools they give you to teach are adequate; I would imagine it would be extremely stressful trying to teach without some decent education materials. And yes, I'm aware being a physician is stressful, but I fail to see why one would try to torment themselves before medical school as well as during and after.

Cancerdog, thanks for the tip, although you don't have to be a resident of Florida to apply to any of the Florida medical schools, or any state for that state's medical schools...just you probably won't get accepted since they don't consider OOS applicants in most cases except under extreme circumstances. Now if this new medical school does not give preference to in-state or OOS, that's one thing, but since I'm sure they're subsidized for in-state students like the rest of the Florida schools are, I'm sure they have a very strong in-state preference.