I have a slight dilemma, therefore I turn to my wise Old pre meds friends for some guidance.
I am planning to re-locate to Birmingham, Ala. to be with my girlfriend b/c she’s stuck in a 3 year tv contract. she wants to see that i’m willing to move for her now so that she’ll be willing to make the sacrifice to move for me later. the biggest obstacle with this is what will happen in regards to applying for med school and what state I’m a resident of. Right now i’m in the great state of texas and I know what you’re all gonna say probaly (stay and apply in texas) but I need to move. if I am trying to apply this summer, I will have only been in Alabama for a couple months before I apply and won’t likely be a resident of that state… but I also won’t be a resident of TX b/c i will not have an address anymore. therefore, where am I a resident of? I have to have some state to claim! any way that you guys can help me figure out what i’ll be claiming and how I can work this to my advantage without having to wait another year to apply (while establishing residency in alabama for a year)
I would start by reading this rather long and lengthy pdf and see if it answers your questions. If not, the document provides a phone number that you may be able to call for answers to your questions. I think you may be able to maintain residency status in Texas for application purposes (just based on the little bit I read of that).
In a situation such as this, I would seek authoritative advice from the appropriate deciding agency. If possible, try to get it in writing how they will classify your residency, so should the question come up during the application process, you have something definitive to back you up.
Good luck - residency questions are always tough.
You should totally keep your Texas residency if you’re applying only 2 months after moving. You’ve been living and working there and you should get a resident’s preference even if you decide to “vacation” for a couple of months elsewhere. Keep an address there–sublet your apartment or rent out your house, and put in a forwarding address at the post office.
At the same time, you can start establishing Alabama residence the minute you move there–get a local driver’s license, find a job, etc. Obviously, Texas is a better bet than Alabama in terms of greater # of schools. And hopefully your girlfriend will be able to move back, should you get into a Texas school, perhaps just in time for you to have finished your two years of basic science and Step 1–then you can take a month off and go to Tahiti together! Best of luck,
Let me ask this question: someone said that it’s ok to assume that I’m on vacation in Alabama for a few months? how long am I going to be able to ride out that one? I am also planning to take 2 classes once I"m there “physics I and II” the pre=-reqs that i’ll have left. I just always worry about not having a “state of residence” as I’ve been in the USA all my life and others come here from international walks of life and get right in. I don’t want to be penalized for just moving. any advice?
How about doing those classes as a transient student? Maybe then you can keep your Texas residency.
OR… better idea… it would be alot less complicated if I were to just Stay here in TX and then there’d be no discrepancy of me being a TX resident ! the only problem now is convincing my girlfriend that I’ll be long-distance from her for another 2 yrs in order for her to be able to move back to TX and me be in a school here. she’s in a 2 yr. long contract for TV station and can’t leave until May 2010. hopefully the year I matriculate. a question to those of you… I know this is the woman with whom I want to spend the rest of my life with. it hurts so much to be away from her and she really thinks I’m putting this dream far ahead of her… but I just have to do what I have to do. would asking her to marry me worsen the long-distance relationship, or show her how committed that I am and help things by showing that there is a goal that we’re working towards?
I’d say make a big, big effort to contact the state residency offices at both states and find out if and how you can stay a resident of Texas and still be with her. Investigate very, very thoroughly before you propose being away from her for two years. This is one way to show her you do care about her dreams as much as yours.
well the miracle happened 2 days ago! my girlfriend, whom I’ve argued with for awhile about wanting to stay in TX vs. moving to alabama, has agreed to let me stay in TX for now and she’s planning to move here after her Television contract is up in 29 months. She is really set on Houston since that’s where she lived for almost a year. haha and she’s even there right now visiting before coming to Dallas for a week. That being said, I’m going to be one of the ones that gets to apply to all the TX schools as an IN STATE RESIDENT!!! I know there are many more ppl who apply given we’re such a large state with so many med schools, but I have to take my odds. and it also looks like I’m gonna need to get accepted to one down by the Houston area. luckily there are 3 in the immediate vicinity and also 1 which is an hr. and half away (which I would commute to if needed) just to be with her. so things are definitely looking up and I just look for advice from those of you who are familiar with the TX process as I prepare to apply in 09 for the class of 2010. I know I have some time but what can I do in the meantime to become attractive to them besides making high MCAT and continuing to ace my pre-reqs at community college. I’m also volunteering at a UT Southwestern Med School here every week. so I’m kinda already in the system. just hope I can keep this up.