App's and Secondaries

[Iwillhealyou]

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What's up SDNrs, was hoping to hear how much a typical application and a corresponding secondary would cost on average. Trying to put a rough budget together for the whole process this summer. If anyone has any rough suggestions for say 15-25 schools I'd appreciate hearing from ya. Thanks all

 

[Astarael]

AMCAS is a base rate of something like $130 plus $30 per school. You can look it up on the AAMC website, or wait until someone here gets you the exact numbers. Secondaries generally run $75-$125, with an average of maybe $90 (per application).

 

[Geekchick921]

Are you just applying to MD schools or MD and DO?

AMCAS Primary Fees.
Secondaries range from maybe $30-40 at the low end to over $100. The four I wound up doing were all about $70-80, which is pretty average, I'd say.

AACOMAS Fees (Page 4)
I can't remember what the secondary fee would have been the DO school I was going to apply to, but I want to say it was less than the others.

You're also going to need to budget for interview attire and transportation. All of my schools and interviews were local so I didn't have to worry about affording plane tickets.

 

[Bravetown]

For that many schools and secondaries: $2000-2500, secondaries are usually like $60-75 (schools suck, George Wash sucks more = $125). Interviews: travel, hotel, food, clothes I would put it around $4000-6000, of course that is if you get at least 4 interviews that you have to fly to get there. If you have more then add on like another $400-600 per interview.

 

[OrangeandMaroon]

I don't know the member's handels off the top of my head but some people have a full cost breakdown on their MDApps. If you have some time it might be worth poking around till you find a few.

 

[aliblack]

I've been too lazy to put all this on my MDapps page, but I did keep a spreadsheet with costs of secondaries. I sent in 19 secondaries for a total of $1,790. They ranged from $70 to $130. It ended up being ~ $94 dollars per secondary on average.

Then consider $160 for the first AMCAS primary and $30 for each of the 18 subsequent ones = $700

Grand total: $2,490 spent on 19 apps.

You can probably add $124 for each additional app to get a darn good estimate for your budget.

 

[Iwillhealyou]

Thanks guys. Funny, I was thinking it would be the other way around as far as costs go. Like the primaries I figured would be more expensive than the secondaries...guess not lol. Thanks for the spreadsheet info aliblack, that helps. Was thinking about setting aside about 2 G's for applications and working all summer to afford interview travel costs for later in the year. How many interviews did you get from the 19 app's?

Geekchick, grats on only sending 4 lol. I want to cast a bunch of lines and see how many bites I get. How did it work for ya?

 

[Geekchick921]

Geekchick, grats on only sending 4 lol. I want to cast a bunch of lines and see how many bites I get. How did it work for ya?

I originally didn't plan to do that. I had a list of about 12-15 schools from Maryland up to NY (debating Virginia to Boston) but I REALLY wanted to stay in the Philadelphia area because almost all of my and my husband's family are here, almost all of our friends are here, and I'd hate to take our daughter away from her relatives. My husband got a new job with significantly better money right before I took my MCAT, so that made me want to stay here even more. Fortunately, I did very well on the MCAT (14/11/14/O. You can see that in my MDApps underneath my avatar to the left), which sealed the deal.

I didn't send my secondary back to PCOM, just the 4 MD schools in Philadelphia. I was 3 for 4 on interviews. 2 for 3 on acceptances, and I'm on 1 (high-priority) waitlist. My favorite of the three schools that I interviewed, which is one of the ones that accepted me, also gave me almost a half-tuition scholarship. I should probably withdraw from that WL because I'm sure that's where I'm going. I've had a very fortunate cycle. 🙂

Good luck to you!

 

[yankeesmed]

For that many schools and secondaries: $2000-2500, secondaries are usually like $60-75 (schools suck, George Wash sucks more = $125). Interviews: travel, hotel, food, clothes I would put it around $4000-6000, of course that is if you get at least 4 interviews that you have to fly to get there. If you have more then add on like another $400-600 per interview.

If you apply to schools within your region you won't spend that much on interviews. I went to 9 interviews but only stayed in two hotels and had only 2 flights.

I did drop $1000 for my Tulane interview but that had nothing to do with Tulane. That was just an amazing weekend in New Orleans! I initially had a student host to stay with but once my friend decided to come with me, I turned it into an all-out vacation.

 

[aliblack]

Thanks guys. Funny, I was thinking it would be the other way around as far as costs go. Like the primaries I figured would be more expensive than the secondaries...guess not lol. Thanks for the spreadsheet info aliblack, that helps. Was thinking about setting aside about 2 G's for applications and working all summer to afford interview travel costs for later in the year. How many interviews did you get from the 19 app's?

Geekchick, grats on only sending 4 lol. I want to cast a bunch of lines and see how many bites I get. How did it work for ya?

I got 9 interviews from the 19 secondaries - you can see more specifics if you click the link for my MDApps. I had to fly 3 times and the other 6 times I drove. I took advantage of student hosts/staying with my parents/staying with friends in the area so I didn't spend any money on accommodations, which was sweet.

 

[Iwillhealyou]

Wow geek, great MCAT score 4 realz. I have yet to get a 14 on any practices but snag a 13 here are there, I'd love be have that suprise next month. I take the big test next Saturday so I've been working hard. Grats on both of your acceptances and your scholarship. That's amazing.

Aliblack, awesome on all your interviews. What were your EC's and stuff because I'll probably be with resume similar to yours and would love to get my foot in as many doors as I can. Grats on your acceptance, it must have been an amazing feeling.

 

[rHinO1]

I made a spread sheet with dates/costs/results/etc...

Here are some of the schools and secondary fees:

SLU 100
Mayo 100
MCW 70
Pitt 85
OSU 80
UVM 95
Tulane 125
UVA 80
Creighton 90
Jefferson 80
Cincinnati 25
VCU 80
UC-Davis 70
Iowa 60
UCSD 70
UCLA 70
USC 90
UCSF 60
Toledo 80
UCI 70
OHSU 100
Penn State70

 

[MayoorBust]

If paying for applications is a real burden apply for FAP they give up to 14 applications for free. Pretty sweet deal if you are hurting for money. I applied for it and got a response in a week time.

 

[aliblack]

Wow geek, great MCAT score 4 realz. I have yet to get a 14 on any practices but snag a 13 here are there, I'd love be have that suprise next month. I take the big test next Saturday so I've been working hard. Grats on both of your acceptances and your scholarship. That's amazing.

Aliblack, awesome on all your interviews. What were your EC's and stuff because I'll probably be with resume similar to yours and would love to get my foot in as many doors as I can. Grats on your acceptance, it must have been an amazing feeling.

Thanks, Iwillhealyou 🙂 My ECs were fairly standard - a lot of research and a few posters but no pubs, volunteer in emergency room ~75 hours, clinical experience post grad as an RA in a hospital, a couple of clubs undergrad, and a semester abroad.

Good luck on your MCAT!! Make sure to relax the day before and celebrate the night after!