I didnt apply to as many schools as your looking at...but here is a rough estimate of my costs off the top of my head:
-$1500 Kraplan Course (Waste of money, decent books (aside from VR)) (Taken in 2006)
-$75 Berkely Review VR book (Loved it) (used in 2008)
-$200 Exam Krackers book set (hated it) (used in 2008)
-$230 MCAT (took it multiple times, but will only count it once here) (taken in 2008)
-$180 AMCAS application fee for 1 school (approx. cost) (August 2009)
-$350 AACOMAS application fee for 8 schools (approx. cost) (August 2009)
-$300 Secondary Application Fees (only submitted 5 secondary apps, planned on waiting on others) (August - October 2009)
-$700 New Suit,Belt,Tie,Shirt,Shoes (October 2009)
-$270 Air fare for LECOM interview (November 2009)
-$70 Hotel for 1 night in PA (November 2009)
-$50 Car rental in PA (November 2009)
-$20 food on interview in PA (November 2009)
-$1500 payment to hold my acceptance at LECOM (March 2010)
-$300 medical fees for antibody titers and immunizations required by LECOM that were not covered by insurance (March 2010)
-$65 FBI criminal history report required by LECOM (March 2010)
_______________
total = $5870.00
This is just from my application this year however. I did apply last year and the year before that and also took the MCAT multiple times...however, I didnt know about the great world of SDN at the time and did a lot of things wrong...so I didnt count those previous mishaps in this calculation. These are rough estimates..to be safe I would round it up to about 6K and since your applying to several more schools than I did, I would probably add another 2K on to that if you decide to go on a lot of interviews...
Having listed everything, there are a few things, if I were to repeat all this from the beginning, that I wouldnt do again...First off, save 1000 bucks by not funding the stupid kaplan program and just buy their books and online material which last time I checked were about 500 dollars. I probably would have done without some of the EK books (I didnt like them, I found their explainations to be extremely poor), but would have done their 1001 books instead...maybe save 50 dollars off that.
My strategy for applying was some what unique in that my state school doesnt accept OOS applications and generally only has ~350 applicants with 130 seats...so the odds arnt as bad as the majority of other allopathic schools. Because of this, I had originally planned to send out 7 primary apps for AACOMAS and then send in the secondaries in groups of two with one month between each group...sending my first and second choice DO schools first, then third and forth the next month...etc. I ended up having a great interview at my state school and decided to hold off on sending out my lower choice DO schools (so only submitted like 4 DO school secondaries)...so, this saved me atleast another 200 dollars plus whatever I would have spent on other interviews I got offerred, though I dont recommend taking this sort of strategy unless you really have to.
Its definately not cheap to apply (especially if you have to do it multiple times), so make sure you get things done right the first time and definately dont cut corners...for instance, if your going to apply DO, make sure you get a DO letter, its too much money to risk not being given a serious look by the schools simply because you didnt shadow a DO regardless of what their webpage says about required letters.
because even If i do make the grade there is a distinct chance that I won't be able to afford the costs.
