Cost of Applying to Residency

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Postictal Raiden

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As third year of medial school is approaching, I'm trying to figure out my budget and how much I need to set aside for residency application/interview costs. I would like for those who have gone through the process, or those who haven't but have knowledge on the subject, to chime in and provide a rough estimate of how much I should expect to spend on residency application/traveling/lodging/etc..

I realize this is highly dependent on the number and the locations of the programs one apply to. However, I'd like to have a rough estimate of how much people spend on this process.

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I'd say 5-10k

Nope!

My combined expenses for both residency and fellowship applications was probably less than 5k.

This really depends on where you are geographically, how wide of a net you will be casting and which specialty you are applying for. If you are planning on only applying locally to locations accessible by bus or car then your expenses will be much less than applying all over the country. Also applying for ortho will cost a lot more than applying for pm&r.

More details required.


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Nope!

My combined expenses for both residency and fellowship applications was probably less than 5k.

This really depends on where you are geographically, how wide of a net you will be casting and which specialty you are applying for. If you are planning on only applying locally to locations accessible by bus or car then your expenses will be much less than applying all over the country. Also applying for ortho will cost a lot more than applying for pm&r.

More details required.


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Thank you for the reply. I'm not sure what I'll be going into yet, but it's not going to be Ortho :)
 
I was able to save on travel and lodging because my wife and I banked frequent flyer miles and points since the beginning of med school. Probably a little too late for you at this point, but planning ahead early on helps a lot.

That said, I feel like all the costs for 4th year were ~$8k including travel/lodging to interviews, audition rotations, etc, application fees, etc.
 
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I'd say 5-10k
I would echo this. Can be much cheaper if you are frugal and smart with regards to scheduling interviews near each other geographically. Airbnb and UBER really help, where as airlines, cab rides, hotels, meals, gas, miles added to car, etc add up. I spent around $3000 but had frequent flier miles that probably saved a few grand. I used airbnb and uber everytime I needed to, and used southwest for flying. Conversely, some of my classmates and peers on the interview trail that went 15-18 interviews easily spent closer to 10k with less regard about location, flights, hotels, food. I would budget 10k and pocket the rest.
 
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Nope!

My combined expenses for both residency and fellowship applications was probably less than 5k.

This really depends on where you are geographically, how wide of a net you will be casting and which specialty you are applying for. If you are planning on only applying locally to locations accessible by bus or car then your expenses will be much less than applying all over the country. Also applying for ortho will cost a lot more than applying for pm&r.

More details required.


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It's probably more costly for us DOs. I imagine we have to apply and interview at more programs comparatively.
 
All estimates I have made based on the most I'd probably spend is in the realm of $10k. That's assuming 12-20 interviews, some of which are cross country. $5k would probably be the cheapest assuming good scheduling and ease with going on interviews during rotations. So I guess $5k- $10k as others have said would be a safe estimate. Personally I'd rather overestimate, so maybe add a couple thousand.
 
Is it possible to get an extra loan for 4th year? With a family, it gets close to COA, but I've still managed to save a decent amount for 3rd and 4th year, but not sure how much I'll have saved by then.
 
It's probably more costly for us DOs. I imagine we have to apply and interview at more programs comparatively.

No, I don't think this is a MD vs DO thing at all. It's an individual thing.

Plenty of my classmates applied locally, so they had minimal travel expenses (myself included). While I know some MD students who were in an area without a lot of residency programs so they were flying to all of their interviews, didn't have friend's houses to stay at, had to rent a car, etc.

OP, if you don't know what and where you're applying, just go ahead and save up as much as you can.
 
This was some time ago now, but my interview season cost me about $2,500. Location makes a huge difference -Nashville is served by Southwest Airlines and is within reasonable driving distance of a good number of cities. If you are in a more remote location, airfare will probably suck more from you.

I also stayed at people's houses whenever possible- from my family, to my college friends, to my college friends' parents (it helps if you kept in touch with those friends).
 
All estimates I have made based on the most I'd probably spend is in the realm of $10k. That's assuming 12-20 interviews, some of which are cross country. $5k would probably be the cheapest assuming good scheduling and ease with going on interviews during rotations. So I guess $5k- $10k as others have said would be a safe estimate. Personally I'd rather overestimate, so maybe add a couple thousand.

How many interviews do people, in general, go on? Is there a way to find out this type of information, like # of interviews vs chances of being accepted?
 
This was some time ago now, but my interview season cost me about $2,500. Location makes a huge difference -Nashville is served by Southwest Airlines and is within reasonable driving distance of a good number of cities. If you are in a more remote location, airfare will probably suck more from you.

I also stayed at people's houses whenever possible- from my family, to my college friends, to my college friends' parents (it helps if you kept in touch with those friends).

I am fortunate to be in an area filled with residency programs. However, it is also a very desirable location and it will probably be very hard to match a program here unless I choose to go into some of the less competitive specialties.

Again, I'm not sure what I'll be doing but I just wanted to get a rough estimate of how much I'll need. Thank you all for the input.
 
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How many interviews do people, in general, go on? Is there a way to find out this type of information, like # of interviews vs chances of being accepted?

Charting outcomes has that info. Generally 10-15 ranks = a match. It may be more or less depending on competitiveness of you, the field, and the region.
 
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Charting outcomes has that info. Generally 10-15 ranks = a match. It may be more or less depending on competitiveness of you, the field, and the region.
Thank you. I just looked up the document and I'm wondering, are you referring to the number of contiguous ranks vs probability of matching graph?
 
Thank you. I just looked up the document and I'm wondering, are you referring to the number of contiguous ranks vs probability of matching graph?

Yeah basically. That and the comparison between matched and non-matched populations when it comes to contiguous ranks can give you some idea. In DO friendly fields, you could probably assume that DO performance is inbetween US senior and independent applicants, and you should be close to the true numbers, but to be safe you can just use the independent applicant part of the graph. It is also consistent with everything I've heard from 4th years and recent grads.

Obviously you can't (i.e. it would be useless to) rank programs that you don't interview in. Assuming you rank all or most of the places you interview at (you should rank everywhere you would be OK with matching at), you should match with 10-15 interviews.

To give an example. In IM, >7 ranks should net you a >90% probability of matching.
 
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Is it possible to get an extra loan for 4th year? With a family, it gets close to COA, but I've still managed to save a decent amount for 3rd and 4th year, but not sure how much I'll have saved by then.

Some schools give you the option to ask for more loans to cover some of the traveling/lodging costs of interviews and auditions. You can check with your school's FA office.

On a similar note, I wonder if there's a way to borrow more money to cover for relocation for residency costs. Also there will be a month or two gap between graduation and receiving first paycheck. I wonder how those who have families do in this situation.
 
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On a similar note, I wonder if there's a way to borrow more money to cover for relocation for residency costs. Also there will be a month or two gap between graduation and receiving first paycheck. I wonder how those who have families do in this situation.

Usually private loans, help from family, heavy use of credit cards, or dips into the savings.
 
Some schools give you the option to ask for more loans to cover some of the traveling/lodging costs of interviews and auditions. You can check with your school's FA office.

On a similar note, I wonder if there's a way to borrow more money to cover for relocation for residency costs. Also there will be a month or two gap between graduation and receiving first paycheck. I wonder how those who have families do in this situation.

Yes. There are specifically "residency relocation loans" offered by Sallie Mae, Discover, etc. The benefit of those over credit cards or a personal loan is usually the interest rate is low and there is a time period in which you don't have to start paying the loan. 4th year can definitely get very pricey.
 
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Yes. There are specifically "residency relocation loans" offered by Sallie Mae, Discover, etc. The benefit of those over credit cards or a personal loan is usually the interest rate is low and there is a time period in which you don't have to start paying the loan. 4th year can definitely get very pricey.

Thank you for this information. Do you know when should start inquiring about these types of loans? Is it a last minute kinda of a thing, or does one need to apply few months in advance?
 
Nope!

My combined expenses for both residency and fellowship applications was probably less than 5k.

This really depends on where you are geographically, how wide of a net you will be casting and which specialty you are applying for. If you are planning on only applying locally to locations accessible by bus or car then your expenses will be much less than applying all over the country. Also applying for ortho will cost a lot more than applying for pm&r.

More details required.


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I've been keeping track of my expenses pretty loosely and I spent about 3k for 12 interviews. I had 2 flights and drove or took a bus/train to everywhere else. I was able to go to most places with free housing, largely thanks to a great website called swap&snooze. If I had to get a few more hotel rooms or fly across the country I can easily see a $10k bill. I know people who went on way more interviews that were more spread out
 
I've been keeping track of my expenses pretty loosely and I spent about 3k for 12 interviews. I had 2 flights and drove or took a bus/train to everywhere else. I was able to go to most places with free housing, largely thanks to a great website called swap&snooze. If I had to get a few more hotel rooms or fly across the country I can easily see a $10k bill. I know people who went on way more interviews that were more spread out

Yeah this is actually what will likely happen with me. Due to regional preferences, half if not more of the places I'm planning on applying to are literally on the other side of the country.

My school is also ridiculously strict about taking off of rotations and they give us a net total of 10 days to go on interviews the whole season. We can only take 5 days off (which includes any sort of scheduled holiday) per rotation. Basically everyone has to either group all of their regional interviews together, go on less interviews, or just work it out with their site without involving the school. Its ridiculous, but it might mean that I spend closer to $10k. If all sites were in driving distance, it would probably cut the cost in half.
 
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Bumping the thread...

Assuming one will mostly be applying in 2 or 3 specific metropolitan areas, how easy is it to schedule interviews that you can just stay in the same city for over the course of a few weeks? I'm guessing I'll end up applying to 35-50 programs, but it would be nice not to have to fly/drive to the same city 6 or 7 times if I can knock out 3-4 interviews in a week. Is this a reasonable idea or are we pretty much at the whim of residency programs when it comes to scheduling interviews?
 
Programs operate on a "don't call us, we'll call you" basis - just like any employer. Unless they already know you or whoever recommended you, you're just one of many candidates they have to go through. The where and when in your interview cycle are mostly out of your control (programs do give you a couple of options when they call).
 
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Bumping the thread...

Assuming one will mostly be applying in 2 or 3 specific metropolitan areas, how easy is it to schedule interviews that you can just stay in the same city for over the course of a few weeks? I'm guessing I'll end up applying to 35-50 programs, but it would be nice not to have to fly/drive to the same city 6 or 7 times if I can knock out 3-4 interviews in a week. Is this a reasonable idea or are we pretty much at the whim of residency programs when it comes to scheduling interviews?

It's mostly out of your control, but in general depending on the specialty, unless it's something super duper specialized you will have a few dates to choose from. However, a lot of programs only do interviews 1 or 2 days per week, so several places might offer you only Tuesdays for example.

I think most admins are understanding if you say you'll be in the area and want to reschedule for a date if you've already been offered an interview and they will try to accommodate you if there is space available. But again, that only happens if you've already been offered a date and if the timing works out well that you can do a few interviews back to back.

Another thing to keep in mind, interviews are exhausting! It might seem like it'd be nice to get them out of the way, but I was happy to have mine spread out from Oct - Jan with a few per month. I think I did have a couple of weeks with 2 in a weeks and I wasn't a fan.
 
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