Cost of application, interviews

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stwei

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Has anyone totalled the cost of their application procedure? If you could, please provide a breakdown of all the major and minor costs involved.

Airfare
taxi
bus
gasoline
food
hotel
interview clothes
MCAT training
application fees
gifts and cards

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Anyone else? Can you be more specific please?
 
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I can't bare to do a breakdown but I know it must have been in the $2.5-3K rnage. Kinda depressing now that I think about it.
 
Secondary application fees and airplane tickets were by far the most expensive aspects of applying. Try to stay with student hosts if you can on your out-of-state interviews. You'll save bank.

Between it all, I've probably spilled over 4G's on the app process. Possibly more. I'm hard pressed to calculate the nitty gritty this late at night.
 
Which city do you live in? How far from your city are the schools your applying to?

Refer to my sig...

For me, I'm from Cali, so I applied to 40 schools...I turned in 22 of my secondaries (LOR and Secondaries=$95), and went to 14 of my interviews (3 in-state (spent less than $450) /11 out) .....so it mainly depends on you method of transportation, and dorming expenses.
 
Airfare:

$200-400, maybe more, per school. Try studentuniverse.com.

taxi, bus, gasoline:

Depends. I'd allocate $50, if you don't spend it all, keep the rest for the next interview.

food, hotel:

Stay with student hosts!!!

interview clothes

If you're a guy, go buy a sport coat, some slacks, a pair of shoes, a dress shirt, and a tie. Maybe $150 - $250 if you go to the outlet store and aren't too picky (basic black, slate gray, or navy blue). If you're a girl, I don't know.

MCAT training :

Buy Kaplan Comprehensive Review. That's it. $65.00 on Amazon, can probably get one locally or on Ebay for a lot less. Seriously, don't waste your money. The MCAT costs $190. Practice MCAT's, I'd allocate $100. You get one free with the Kaplan book, you can probably get them off Ebay pretty cheap.

application fees:

Figure a total of $150 per school, including AMCAS, secondary, and sending your LOR's.

gifts and cards:

Too late, already broke. :-( Buy a postcard if you can. That's it.

I live in the midwest, our cost of living is very low. So actual mileage on this may vary. Needless to say, it's expensive.
 
applied to 10 schools. interviewed at 5.
mcat prep + exam = 1300
applications + secondaries = 900
airfare/hotel/gas = 750
 
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