Cost

[Homo sapien]

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I was wondering, in total, how much were your travel expenses for interviews? I was thinking of using greyhound buses when I go as I really can't afford plane tickets.

Thank you,

 

[EK18]

Kent State costed me $500 for round trip, leaving from San Diego International. Scholl costed just under $300 round trip though, because I left from LAX which almost always has cheaper flights, but it is an absolute nightmare to go through.

 

[Homo sapien]

I'm in MS so I won't be leaving from any of those places. How much was your hotel room for the night

 

[pacpod]

I believe I spent a total of about $800 when interviewing at DMU and Scholl.

 

[josebiwasabi]

average of about $400 per school including airfare. try and save money wherever you can.

Kent: stayed at a hotel that offered shuttle service to/from the school so no rental car was needed, split the hotel cost with a friend who was traveling to cleveland for a different reason
Scholl: stayed at a friend's apartment at UChicago
NYCPM: stayed at a friend's apartment in astoria, no rental car needed
Barry: at the time i lived in ft lauderdale
DMU: it was actually my most expensive interview due to flight+rental car+hotel

 

[dyk343]

Greyhound and Amtrak are both options, but they can be un-reliable in terms of arrival time. Make sure you leave plenty of buffer, especially if you choose Amtrak.

 

[hughesn2]

Also, you'd have to be more specific on where you are leaving from and which places you plan on going. Because for me I don't even plan on applying to the 3 western time zone schools. Like for me, I can just drive my car from Lansing to Kent State or Lansing to Northern Chicago for those two schools. And if I do even get an interview with Temple and NY I think my best idea would be to do those two in the same week, maybe just a couple of days apart because the two schools are just 100 miles apart from each other.
For me, Northern Chicago is just 250 miles away from where I will be in the fall and Kent State is 260 miles away. BUT I understand not everybody lives within 300 miles of the colleges of their choice.
But when I go to Barry I do plan on taking a plane IF I go during the Fall semester. But I may even decide to just drive down there and take a winter break after Christmas and interview down there, but I do hope to interview before December. For me I do think it is gonna be a hassle to go to schools and interview since I have just this fall semester left. At least that is the one good thing about some of Physio teachers that they understand people are interviewing during the semester so you can get excused from work.

 

[Homo sapien]

I don't even have a car :O.

I was planning on applying to all of them except the two california ones

 

[heybrother]

Plan on finding out more about each school and then limiting the number of applications you'll send out. You'll save oodles on applications and trips and avoid a bunch of phonecalls and invites for interviews you aren't going to take. Podiatry schools do not know if you are interested in them or just applying everywhere. They don't know they are your second, third, 7th choice. They offer interviews to everyone because that's the only way to find out if you are interested in them. This isn't like medicine where people apply to a large number of schools hoping to secure interviews to a handful. Most people could eliminate schools straight from the get-go by just asking "would I want to live in that city". This is not a competitive process. If through some anti-miracle you can't secure an acceptance after interviewing at 2-3 schools then there is something glaringly wrong about your application or your personality. If you can't secure an interview after applying to a few schools you can always send out more applications.

 

[Homo sapien]

The main three I intend on applying to are Scholl, Kent, and Temple.

 

[Telekinesis]

Plan on finding out more about each school and then limiting the number of applications you'll send out. You'll save oodles on applications and trips and avoid a bunch of phonecalls and invites for interviews you aren't going to take. Podiatry schools do not know if you are interested in them or just applying everywhere. They don't know they are your second, third, 7th choice. They offer interviews to everyone because that's the only way to find out if you are interested in them. This isn't like medicine where people apply to a large number of schools hoping to secure interviews to a handful. Most people could eliminate schools straight from the get-go by just asking "would I want to live in that city". This is not a competitive process. If through some anti-miracle you can't secure an acceptance after interviewing at 2-3 schools then there is something glaringly wrong about your application or your personality. If you can't secure an interview after applying to a few schools you can always send out more applications.

So every school sends invites?

 

[Homo sapien]

Ok, I've been looking at Amtrak schedules and they don't seem to be as expensive. So how much buffer of time would I need to allow, on average, if I was to use Amtrak?