Residency Eligibility

Preference is given to permanent residents of North Dakota or those with strong ties to the state.

Applicants are encouraged to review the preference criteria below to assess their fit for the University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences (SMHS). Those who meet these criteria are strongly encouraged to apply. Applicants who do not meet the criteria will be considered only if there are not enough qualified applicants who do. In the past 3 cycles, no applicants outside of these preferences have matriculated. All applications are evaluated in the context of the School’s Technical Standards policy.

Residency Eligibility 

All applicants must be U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents of the United States.

As a state-supported School, we grant admissions preference to North Dakota residents or those who have strong ties to the state. We also admit a small number of applicants from Minnesota, Montana and Wyoming.

North Dakota Residents

Strongest preference is given to applicants who list a permanent North Dakota address on their primary application and who graduated from a North Dakota high school.

Former Residents of North Dakota

Former residents of North Dakota are those who graduated from a North Dakota high school and/or who were previously residents of North Dakota for ten years or more.

Ties to North Dakota

Applicants may also qualify if they meet any of the following criteria:

1. Applicants who are, or will be at time of matriculation, a graduate of a North Dakota university (public or private), excluding online degrees.
2. Have a first-degree family member (mother, father, sibling, child or spouse) who is attending or is a graduate of a North Dakota university, excluding online degrees.
3. Applicants who have been legal North Dakota residents for less than one year, or who are not currently residents, but have a spouse attending or accepted to a North Dakota college or university (excluding online programs) for the upcoming academic year and will be living in North Dakota during that time.
4. Applicants who have family members currently living in the state of North Dakota.
5. Are active military members, or a spouse of an active military member and are currently stationed in North Dakota.

Minnesota Residents

A stronger preference is given to Minnesota residents who graduated from a high school and/or undergraduate institution in the Red River Valley.

Minnesota Red River Valley Counties

INMED Applicants

Applicants who are enrolled members of federally recognized tribes, regardless of state residency, are encouraged to apply. INMED (Indians into Medicine) applicants are not required to meet a residency preference; however, they must fulfill other application requirements. In recent years, no applicants who did not meet a residency preference have been accepted.

WICHE Student Exchange Program

The UND SMHS participates in the Professional Student Exchange Program under which legal residents of western states without a medical school may receive preference in admission. Applicants are certified by the WICHE-sending states of Montana or Wyoming.

Certified WICHE students pay resident tuition if they are supported by their home state. To be eligible for this program, the student must be WICHE-certified in his/her state of legal residence before matriculation. The number of students to be supported in each state in the field of medicine depends on state appropriations.

For addresses of state certifying officers, consult:

WICHE Student Exchange Program
3035 Center Green Dr
Boulder CO 80301-9752
303.541.0214
info-sep@wiche.edu

Transfer Students

Opportunities to transfer are rare. The Med School only accepts transfers from students at the start of their third year of medical school and who are in good standing at an LCME-accredited school.

If you wish to be considered for a transfer, you must contact the Associate Dean for Student Affairs & Admissions no later than Sept. 1 of the academic year in which you wish to transfer.