Cannot comment on the residency. However, have been through D1 recruitment process with field hockey playing daughter. You’ve indicated club participation - are you deep into the national and regional showcase/national recruiting tournament process at this point? If not, you’re already a little behind in process for the top soccer D1 schools as a rising junior. Get highlight video done ASAP to send to coaches - her talent level could help narrow the school focus based on level of play (D1, D2, D3, NAIA) to minimize some of your stress. Pre-med extremely hard with any of the intercollegiate levels, but certainly not impossible…she just needs to decide now. The recruitment process adds a significant amount of stress into the process. Remember, many outstanding schools - like UNC, Texas, UVA, etc - all have AMAZING club soccer teams that allow the student to burn stress, have some fun, have social connection, stay with their sport, travel a little…without the serious NCAA time constraints and restrictions.
For a rising junior, D1 Women’s soccer recruiting is heading into the home stretch. Unless she has been in that pipeline already, soccer recruiting, at least D1, is not going to be part of the college selection equation. D2 and D3 are on a later track, though of course, D3 does not include athletic scholarships. Then there are NAIA and NCCAA schools, which do give athletic scholarships, and tend to be smaller schools.
In-state tuition rates only come into play for public universities/colleges, so moving somewhere before senior year would only improve finances if the student wound up at a public institution in that state. Rather than narrow the focus now, by choosing a specific state, focus on identifying the automatic merit awards available from pinned threads here, and research schools which will bring the strongest merit award package, whether that means in-state tuition rates for an out of state student, or substantial merit bringing down cost of tuition significantly. Honors programs at publics can give pre-med and STEM students terrific access to research and mentorships with professors, and some come with summer research funding etc.
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NC. Move earlier if it is that important to her. She doesn’t have any scores yet so it is hard to figure out if she could get any merit.
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UNC-CH doesn’t give much/any merit, so please don’t count on that to get costs down to $12k per year.
There have been several posts from parents of high stats students who’ve been very disappointed when they’ve gotten NO merit from UNC.
UNC does give need based aid (with full loans), but it sounds like the combo of your EFC and loans would mean a net cost of MUCH higher than $12k per year.
Do you know what your EFC would be?
Take this with a grain of salt since I’m a rookie here and not an expert but…we do live in Texas.
Moving right before a kids junior year can be brutal. I’m sure it is brutal anywhere, but especially to Texas. Admission to the two most selective state schools here is based heavily on class rank. A&M is top 10% and UT is top 7-8% for automatic admission.
These kids have been playing the GPA/rank game since 7-8th grade. They have been taking weighted classes since 8th grade and in the biggest and best school districts it is “game ON” for these kids. If you move, some of her classes may not transfer as weighted the same and she could lose a LOT of footing. Also, she will have to dig in to her ECs and it could be an uphill battle. We have met a kid who moved from the mid-west…high GPA, class president, etc. It was a really really rough year for her to transition. Jumping in to a brand new school and finding a leadership position was daunting. Very daunting. Sports might be easier since skill seems to be more transferrable and it sounds like she would be very competitive there.
I’m sure it can be done and I’m sure lots of kids do it. But if you don’t HAVE to do it…I wouldn’t.
Even if you do get IN state tuition to Texas, your costs won’t be what you need. UT gives very very little merit aid an the total cost of attendance will be close to $27,000 per year. I wouldn’t count on getting $10K in merit from them at all. Texas A&M = might get a smaller merit scholarship with good stats, but still $22-25K yearly.
Sounds like a better plan would be to stay put and hunt for merit.
JOKING…but if you are determined to move, perhaps a better move would be to move to a state with a historically low cutoff score for NMF and let her take the test there and stay there all year, lol!!! (totally joking!!)
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think I read Texas chooses 90% of their med students from Texas.
No more then $12,000/yr. Hopefully she can get at least $10,000 year merit. I am looking at universities that are under $15,000/ yr. But that just leaves us instate or maybe University of Alabama or similar school. Unless we could figure out how to get in state in NC. Move earlier if it is that important to her. Sh
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Your DD might have a hard time getting listed as top 7% as a Texas high school transfer.
UNC gives lousy merit.
that 90% is pretty typical of all states that have public med schools. The mission of state med schools is to educate doctors for that state.
The trick might be to look for what we call “Lucky States”…and those are states with public SOMs that accept mostly instate students AND who don’t have high instate app numbers.
Idaho’s NMSF cutoff should be lowish, correct?
Alabama could be a good choice if her stats are high enough. If she makes NMF, then costs would be VERY low. Alabama med schools heavily favor instate students OR students who go to undergrad in Alabama. With strong stats, it’s not too difficult to get into one of Alabama’s med schools…particularly if you’re female.
Do you have an objection to Alabama or its med schools?
Take a look at the WUE schools.
You might not be too far off at Montana State - Bozeman, for example. If she takes her federal loans (starting with $5,500/year freshman year) and is able to work during the off season and summers, it might work.
Perhaps take a look at the University of Florida and USF. If you were to move this year, your daughter would be eligible for instate tuition. Florida offers a Bright Futures scholarship, but I don’t know if you must attend all 4 years of HS in Florida.
I think a 30 ACT would get IS tuition as an OOS student at FSU. I believe that’s still outside the budget, even with max Stafford loans, but maybe additional merit could make it affordable.
Be aware that WUE schools often will not give merit. Usually the choice is “WUE 150% rate of tuition” or a scholarship (if qualified)…not both.
Montana faces the same issue that Idaho has…no med school, so part of the WWAMI partners with UWash SOM.
I have been looking at UA as maybe a good alternative. It actually gives good merit for OOS. I need to look into FSU as it was not on the (Automatic Full Tuition Scholarship list).
The problem with WUE schools is there still are very few medical schools in any of the states around us, so that is a big disadvantage. From what I have been reading it seems most medical schools take the majority of students from their state first, then they take some OOS (and I have a feeling that those OOS have to be the cream of the crop). Plus I think I read that about 50% of kids that start on the path to medical school need to drop for various reasons and then all this is just a mute point, lol. Then of those 50% who graduate only 50% get accepted. Maybe I am not really understanding what I have been reading. Or is this info more or less correct?
I thought the community college route made so much sense. Move as soon as she graduates (The thing is we really do want to move). It isn’t just to get in-state tuition. East coast has very affordable beach properties which is why we were looking at NC. Then she could do one or two years of community college while obtaining residency. Transfer to university and get in state tuition. But then I someone wrote, not if you want to go to medical school. Is that an absolute? I just hate to see her finish with some $200+ of debt!
Avoiding undergrad debt is precisely why the strategy would be to “chase merit” awards, rather than physically relocate.
It seems though that it is rare for a college to give that from what I’ve been able to find unless a kids stats are off the charts.
Different colleges have different charts. 
What’s required for a merit scholarship at Duke is significantly different from what is required at UAH.
There was a poster a few years ago whose child was not a stellar CC student (meaning probably good average). They honed their search and found a number of merit aid options. Anyone remember the title of that thread?
What is really the killer for us is having to live on campus freshman year. That is why a community college looks so appealing. The cost to go to some of the colleges seam reasonable till you add up room and board. Would be great but not always affordable for families. Since we can move anywhere we could avoid that extra cost and make it all manageable. I was wondering if there are any community colleges that are ranked really high that a med school might not look down on if a student attended there?
USF tuition, excluding Bright Futures award for instate, living at home Florida Residents
Fall & Spring
Full-Time Tuition and Fees* $6,410
Housing/Meals $4,850
Books/Supplies $1,200
Other Expenses** $4,100
Total $16,560
If you add room and board, it is $21,410. That is without Bright Futures or financial aid.
Here are a bunch of schools with COAs <$25K total. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1651944-very-low-cost-oos-coa-universities-less-than-25k-coa-for-everything-p1.html Some to consider:
http://college-tuition.startclass.com/l/2986/Minot-State-University $16K on campus
http://www.bemidjistate.edu/admissions/undergraduate/tuition-aid/ $17K on campus
Thanks, that will help!