How much money did you spend when you applied to D-school?

SDN Members don't see this ad. (About Ads)

Just curious on how much money you spent when applying to dental school? Of course depending on how many schools you applied to. Just want to get an idea so future applicants can start saving pennies or hundreds...LOL

It was a while ago, but I think I spent about $1K including airfare to interviews. I applied to 6 schools. Of course keep in mind that when I travel, I live large.

It all depends. You can figure out the PASS application fee easily. Then add on the schools' secondary application fee. Assume each school will have one from 20-60 dollars. Most expensive are plane tickets and hotels if you get interviews. Of course, this is a good problem to have. Finally the biggest possible expense is tuition deposit - especially if it is at your second choice school, and you end up getting into your first choice later. That is a rare occurence, though. This can be $200 - $1000. (* I changed this number after seeing the next post.) Of course, this can be a good problem to have too. (Since you end up getting in where you wanted.)

As you can see, there are an insane number of variables. If you are a top notch applicant, you can probably "afford" to apply to less schools.

Applied to five, interviewed at five, accepted at five in December. All in fall 2001, and all at least 1500 miles away from where I did my undergrad. Total cost (DAT, AADSAA, secondaries, interview flights and lodging) was about $1000-$1200...thank heavens for cheap flights and friends all over to stay with. Deposit for top choice was another $200 in addition to that.

i applied to 11 schools (sometimes i wonder why....) anyways it probably ended up being somewhere along 1500 bucks...

Originally Posted by drhobie7

It was a while ago, but I think I spent about $1K including airfare to interviews. I applied to 6 schools. Of course keep in mind that when I travel, I live large.

Damn, you guys got through cheap. I applied to i think 24 schools so that cost me like 2 to 3 thousand and all my interviews were on the east coast (coming from california) so i don't even want to remember what the traveling costs were.

Originally Posted by superchris147

Damn, you guys got through cheap. I applied to i think 24 schools so that cost me like 2 to 3 thousand and all my interviews were on the east coast (coming from california) so i don't even want to remember what the traveling costs were.

Yeah but when you factor in inflation, that $1K I spent in 2002 is really equivalent to $4K now. ah hehehehhehe, I'm giddy from studying too long....

$1000-$2000 for 9 schools

AADSAS = about $500 (5 schools)
ADA for DAT = $50
Trips to interviews 3 = about $600
Total = about $1,200 - not bad at all.

your experiences cost way more than mine did. i only applied to two schools and got into both of them. my total costs were around $400--this # includes DAT study guides, DAT, application fees, deposit at one school, and gas $. I live close to one of the schools i applied to and stayed with a friend when i interviewed at the other.

about 1200 counting app fees, dat testing, food, hotels and gas. i applied to 6 schools and drove to interview at all of them.

it adds up quickly.

Oh lord, all of those figures are way lower than what I spent - don't worry, I won't shock the schmuck out of you by disclosing the final figure. Let's just say I made the mistake of second guessing my chances and applying to 15 schools, flying across the country for a huge chunk of them, hotels, rental cars, and hailing some rather over-priced taxis, plus a new suit (not cheap, either), and other such insanity all adds up to a sizable chunk of change. Hind sight is certainly 20/20.....sigh.

My story might be different, I applied to 17 schools. I accepted interviews at three schools and ended up choosing UOP. I am from California so the east coast schools were around $700 each including airfare, cab ride to and from airport, hotel and food. The UOP interview ran around $350 including airfare, cab, subways, food, etc.. I would start saving up. I ended up at UOP and will be starting in july of this year. It can be expensive, so start saving. Good luck!

I think I spent at least $3,000 on the total costs.... you have to think about all the little things that nickle and dime you to death-- paying for the adsaas, secondary costs, thank you cards, postage costs, picture costs, transcript fee costs. I'm from Seattle, so UW was free! But then for example my interview at UConn -- the ticket was at least 300, then 2 hotel nights (at least 100 bucks a pop), food, and the whopping $160 taxi rides from the airport to the school then back! Unbeleivable! This was very expensive. I applied initially to 14 schools, but realized this was too much, so didn't send back very many secondaries. I had 6 interview offers in Sept-Oct and was offered spots at each in December so I just withdrew the rest of my apps. Good luck w/ the expensive process!

UW 2010

$5000 when it was all said and done. There are a lot of hidden costs you wouldn't think about. I applied to 10 schools and visited 3. This includes everything: Kaplan Course, DAT, plane, hotel,AADSAS etc. It cost an additional $3000 to secure my place per school when accepted and will be more to move.

I applied to 14 schools and paid about $3500 including the DAT, application fee, pre-dental committee letters, interviews and travel cost....

I'd recommend to save up atleast $5000.00 to apply to schools. Obviously, not all 5K will be used up. The leftover can be used on a week getaway before you actually start the school