<p>Is it true that Texas has the cheapest medical schools? </p>
<p>What is required to establish in-state status there? Must you live there a year before applying to med school? Can you get IS status while a medical student?</p>
<p>Does Texas really require 2 years of undergrad biology even though the rest of the country only requires one?? </p>
<p>Any other advice for an out-of-state kid who's thinking of taking advantage of their much more reasonable medical school rates??</p>
<p>Texas is very protective of its Med schools so establishing residency just for education purposes is very difficult. They do offer many accepted OOS students significantly reduced tuition however. The bad news is that they are mandated by state law to a 90% instate minimum so spots for OOS students are limited and HIGHLY competitive especially at the top three schools.</p>
<p>So, if I have an undergraduate degree and take a job in Texas, with the intention of eventually attending med school at one of the cheapest medical schools in the country, when will I be considered ‘in-state’? </p>
<p>Nephew is seriously considering this as an option after he completes the BA. He doesn’t want a ton of debt following med school. His parents have been gracious enough to fund the BA, but he’s on his own for med school. Seems like a smart idea to his family!..Is there a flaw said ‘plan’?</p>
<p>Honestly, I would think not. The rules for residency don’t seem as clear-cut when it comes to establishing residency with the primary intentions of using their higher education systems. While under normal circumstances, simply working in Texas (or buying land, etc.) for at least 12 months seems to establish residency. However, when it comes to use the higher education system, they are a bit more strenuous as far as your primary intentions to establishing domicile in Texas. But what do I know? Look below:</p>
<p>Here’s the rules they use: [:</a> Texas Administrative Code](<a href=“http://info.sos.state.tx.us/pls/pub/readtac$ext.ViewTAC?tac_view=5&ti=19&pt=1&ch=21&sch=B&rl=Y]:”>http://info.sos.state.tx.us/pls/pub/readtac$ext.ViewTAC?tac_view=5&ti=19&pt=1&ch=21&sch=B&rl=Y)</p>
<p>Here’s a quick check list: <a href=“College For All Texans: Home”>College For All Texans: Home;
<p>I would suggest picking up a copy of the MSAR. It will have a list of the all the medical schools and their tuition. I would assume it might have their COA as well. Anyway, there are several states that have cheap medical schools. Once you find out what those are, you could go about seeing how to establish residency in those states. Louisiana is an example, with tuition in the 13,000 range, but only take LA residents. Texas is good because they have many medical schools (including some top-notch ones like UT-SW) and all of them have low tuition for instate.</p>
<p>AS far as OOS tuition, Baylor probably has one of the cheapest OOS tuition.</p>
<p>You would be hard pressed to get Texas residency. They will more than likely see right through your plan of getting residency for the sole purpose of cheap medical school.</p>
<p>The only way I could see them counting you as a resident is if you spent a couple years in Texas and married a Texas native and bought a house and everything.</p>
<p>“In addition, applicants are evaluated with regard to the mission of UT Southwestern Medical School, which emphasizes the importance of training primary-care physicians, educating doctors who will practice in medically under-served areas of Texas, and preparing physician-scientists who seek careers in academic medicine and research.”</p>
<p>They want people who are from Texas and who want to stay in Texas.</p>
<p>As for prices, Baylor OOS is 30k, and all the publics (OOS) are like 27-28k.
But that still makes Baylor cheaper than almost every private med school.</p>
<p>Long story short, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be considered a Texas resident. I feel very fortunate to be a Texan, and will even moreso when application time comes around, haha.</p>
<p>Thank God for the 90% rule. I couldn’t really afford to go anywhere else. Now I just have to get in.</p>
<p>If you do get into a Texas medical school, I was told that you can switch your residency after the first year so that you can get in state tuition.</p>
<p>“Thank God for the 90% rule. I couldn’t really afford to go anywhere else. Now I just have to get in.”</p>
<p>Texas med schools, especially the top few, are ridiculously competitive out of state. It’s like you just cut the acceptance rate down to 10% of what it was before by applying as OOS. Not that it can’t be done, but I’d rather apply to a school where I had a chance at getting 100% of the slots, instead of 10%…</p>
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<p>I would think that Texas, or any other state, for that matter, would have a difficult time denying that someone working and living in the state for “12 months” prior to enrollment (Item 2B in the Texas Administrative Code) is not a resident for tuition purposes, as long as that person was not a dependent on a parent living in another state and such person has made Texas their domicile.</p>
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<p>That would mean you’d need to take at least a year off and work.</p>
<p>I have a few times that when determining residency for higher education purposes, it’s not so clear cut, and that it’s more subjective.</p>
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<p>Yup, and that is exactly what the OP indicated in post #3.</p>
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<p>Yes and know. The living and working for 12 months and opening a checking account and registering to vote and a a car and drivers license are pretty clear cut. The subjective part is intent…but the state cannot prove otherwise.</p>
<p>Hence, the “What do I know?” part of my post.</p>
<p>Really though, the only thing I came across while looking at Texas Residency requirements that made me think that it wouldn’t work was:</p>
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<p>Part b. Has the main options of:</p>
<p>A. Go to College
B. Establish/Maintain a Home
C. Work Options
or other reasoning.</p>
<p>According to the OP, the main intention of being in the state would be to go to medical school. Of course, I could be reading the question wrong since maybe it relates to present intentions (i.e. to establish/maintain a home) and not necessarily future intentions of going to medical school.</p>
<p>But after further light reading of the TMDSAS process (I’m not a Texan nor did I apply to Texas Medical schools), it seems the OPs plan might work.</p>
<p>[TMDSAS</a> Medical: Residency Information](<a href=“http://www.utsystem.edu/tmdsas/medical/residency.html]TMDSAS”>http://www.utsystem.edu/tmdsas/medical/residency.html)</p>
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<p>I quoted most of the page. I’m not a residency expert.</p>
<p>I have to believe that the OP is not the first to think of this nor want to try it. I would also guess that their radar is up as a result which would lead me to believe that they would be able to see through that strategy. On the other hand if the OP moved and worked for more than one year (two or three) before applying to med schools it might be less hard to detect.</p>
<p>It is also a risky strategy because forfeiting one’s own in state status automatically lessens chances at the real in state schools.</p>
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<p>Yes, there is risk, no doubt. But unless one becomes a person of the “world”, one needs to have one state “domicile.” If that person forfeits his former home-state, Texas would be hard-pressed to prove that s/he was not domiciled in Texas.</p>
<p>Think about it this way: </p>
<p>1) kid from Chicago takes some merit money and attends Rice for four years. Then joins AmericaCorps and works in the Rio Grande Valley for a year or two. At age 24, such kid will have spent 25% of his life on earth in the Republic of Texas. How could the powers-that-be claim s/he was not a resident? But, more importantly, Illinois won’t likely count him/her as a resident, since s/hes been gone and working elsewhere…</p>
<p>2) same kid as 1, but in this case, s/he takes the merit money at Tulane and then works in the Rio Grande Valley teaching for a year or two…</p>
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<p>Perhaps true, but the numbers may not be that big since only those who might try it would hail from extremely competitive states (such as California), where admission to instate med schools is harder than some privates. Even New York state has med schools that aren’t hyper “competitive”, so naturally those kids would prefer to stay home first.</p>
<p>My family is not in this situation so …I’m not up to speed. But, from the reading I’ve done many OOS schools have easy residency requirements for second year med students that they make known to interviewees. Texas is NOT one of them . </p>
<p>Something anyone needs to consider before heading down this road. Many OOS students attend Texas UG’s. That connection to Texas seems to help significantly when applying OOS. I would think the same “connection” argument would work in favor of the student who had lived here in the year prior to application, i.e. some evidence to back up the commitment to “serving Texans”. When reviewing two applicants, one with no connection to Texas and one who made their home here prior to applying, I am pretty dang sure the second file gets a favorable check mark. </p>
<p>IMO, unless a fool-proof way to establish Texas residency exists, one strategy (not saying “best”) would be to maintain your home-state residency, live in Texas, apply as OOS with those Texas “connects”. Craft your app to highlight your commitment to serving Texas. At schools like TTU (where the commitment needs to be “West Texas”) , I believe it could be a difference maker and you are not jumping off a cliff into “the applicant without a state”. </p>
<p>My kid thought so much of the TTU commitment to serving their “population” that she wouldn’t apply (wouldn’t write the essay saying she wanted to serve that community) to either TTU school. (And yes. That was the major reason she didn’t apply to Lubbock as her mom is a great supporter and alum of TTU. TTU was also the only Texas school my D applied to for UG.)</p>
<p>Nutshell- Showing a commitment to a life of practicing medicine in the community the Texas (or other OOS) med school was designed to serve would be a great “separator”, however that commitment was shown.</p>