During residency interviews, how many programs paid for hotels?

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Buttermellow

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I'm a 4th year med student applying to IM and am setting up a budget for interviews, and trying to get a feel of how many programs might pay for hotel expenses or give a discount. I'm applying mostly in the midwest to academic programs. If you wouldn't mind commenting how many of your interviews included hotels fully/partially paid for, what type of program (academic/community), and where (generally) the program was, it would be very helpful!

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I'm a 4th year med student applying to IM and am setting up a budget for interviews, and trying to get a feel of how many programs might pay for hotel expenses or give a discount. I'm applying mostly in the midwest to academic programs. If you wouldn't mind commenting how many of your interviews included hotels fully/partially paid for, what type of program (academic/community), and where (generally) the program was, it would be very helpful!
I went on 16 interviews. One place paid outright. 5 gave discounts (some of which were solid, some of which were a joke). The others suggested a variety of lodging options.
 
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I'm a 4th year med student applying to IM and am setting up a budget for interviews, and trying to get a feel of how many programs might pay for hotel expenses or give a discount. I'm applying mostly in the midwest to academic programs. If you wouldn't mind commenting how many of your interviews included hotels fully/partially paid for, what type of program (academic/community), and where (generally) the program was, it would be very helpful!

For residencyy 0 paid but most had deals set up (still was ~100/program). For fellowship only 1 paid.
 
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Only one program paid. It was a wealthy program in a rather remote place. The rest may have reduced rates, but don't count on it being cheaper than booking yourself.
 
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Most of the posters who have answered so far interviewed long before I did.

I went on over 20 interviews, many to community programs and the Midwest. Those programs are most likely to pay for hotel or offer significant discounts, although many academic centers did as well.

So a few years back, it was all the rage that programs did this

However, depending on your list make up of course, I would still budget $100 per interview for hotel and that will likely work out as an average when you factor in discounts, who pays, places where you book that are more vs ones that are less.

If you use hotels.com you get a free $100 credit for a night after booking 10 nights through them. I liked their search features for figuring out good prices vs location relative to interview.

Also, compare prices for rental car + case vs using Uber or cab. I preferred rental car as I found the cost ~$30 plus the convenience of having complete control of to/from interview & time, to be a good deal compared to cab.

I probably budgeted about $150 in addition to flights for each interview - usually enough to cover a cheap hotel, rental car, gas, and incidentals like snacks/food. Before people say that's too much it's meant to be an overestimate and there are ways to do it cheaper, but you don't want to run out of money interview season.
 
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Most of the posters who have answered so far interviewed long before I did.

I went on over 20 interviews, many to community programs and the Midwest. Those programs are most likely to pay for hotel or offer significant discounts, although many academic centers did as well.

So a few years back, it was all the rage that programs did this

However, depending on your list make up of course, I would still budget $100 per interview for hotel and that will likely work out as an average when you factor in discounts, who pays, places where you book that are more vs ones that are less.

If you use hotels.com you get a free $100 credit for a night after booking 10 nights through them. I liked their search features for figuring out good prices vs location relative to interview.

Also, compare prices for rental car + case vs using Uber or cab. I preferred rental car as I found the cost ~$30 plus the convenience of having complete control of to/from interview & time, to be a good deal compared to cab.

I probably budgeted about $150 in addition to flights for each interview - usually enough to cover a cheap hotel, rental car, gas, and incidentals like snacks/food. Before people say that's too much it's meant to be an overestimate and there are ways to do it cheaper, but you don't want to run out of money interview season.

Thanks for your detailed reply! I was hoping someone who interviewed fairly recent (last few years) would reply. I have my own car that gets good gas mileage, so I will probably go with that for most interviews that are within driving distance. I agree with getting a rental car for cities I fly to, I like the control and not having to wait on a cab/uber that might not show up on time.
 
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Thanks for your detailed reply! I was hoping someone who interviewed fairly recent (last few years) would reply. I have my own car that gets good gas mileage, so I will probably go with that for most interviews that are within driving distance. I agree with getting a rental car for cities I fly to, I like the control and not having to wait on a cab/uber that might not show up on time.

I interviewed last year. Don't know about community programs, but nice of them to pay. I'm not a fan of the system, it's highly inefficient and expensive for us, and I could have used the extra money to move for residency. Obviously depends on the city, but for some places, expect that you need 4000-6000$ upfront for rent and moving. If it wasn't for the match, I would probably have interviewed one or two places, and saved extra time and money.
 
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Interviewed 4 years ago @ 10 programs

1 paid for the hotel

3 gave discounts

6 gave recommendations but no financial discount
 
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No paid hotels, a few offered discounts, most I tried to stay with a friend for or interviewed within driving distance.

For fellowship, one place paid for hotel, most offered discounts, some driving distance.
 
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About half of the residencies paid for my hotel, about 25% offered a discount, about 25% gave suggested places to stay at.

I interviewed last year.
 
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You didn't ask about this and few take advantage but many med schools keep alumni lists of folks in various cities willing to host for residency interviews. You can save a lot, meet some folks, do some networking and sleep in comfy places.
 
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interviewed 2 years ago, mostly academic east coast programs in major cities. only one program paid and 4-5 had crappy discounts (used 1 discount, was able to find cheaper hotels at the rest).
 
Pretty much you can assume that unless it's a small city, private program your room won't be covered.

I saved a lot of money by signing up for a hotel branded credit card and then searching for hotels with the cheapest number of points for redemption. Sometimes I had to drive 30min to get to the medical center, but it was often a significant savings. Interviewing is going to be expensive. There's no way around it.
 
Interesting. I guess I did my interviews 8 years ago now but I don't think I went on an interview that didn't pay for my room.

Times a changing.
 
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Interviewed last year, 1 program paid. Otherwise I tended to get the cheapest airbnb I could. Cost 20-60 dollars per interview but you have to research public transit very thoroughly to make it work.

I think applicants are going on too many interviews these days for programs to be able to afford to put them up anymore.
 
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When I interviewed one program paid and the rest had deals set up. To be fair, the program that paid owned the hotel. I'm beginning to think that all of us posting here might have interviewed at the same program that paid for the hotel :laugh:.
 
Interviewed for residency 4 years ago now. No programs out of 17 I interviewed at paid for a room, and I interviewed at a mix of academic and community.

Interviewed for fellowship last year. One out of 8 programs paid for a room.
 
I'm not doing medicine but I did do some prelim im interviews, mostly academic but also community. None of the prelims paid of course. Shoutout to UMich anesthesiology for paying for 2 nights at a really nice hotel. Awesome program.
 
I interviewed in 2011 . About 40% of my 20 programs paid for hotels etc.

However I am a foreign grad (SGU), and my programs were not top notch aka Harvard yale, etc.

Most of my programs were probably not where your average American grad would select (rural towns, etc.)
 
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