how much did you spend?

[granola]

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to all applicants from last cycle, how much total money did you spend on the entire application process?

How many schools did you apply to? How much on the secondaries? Travel costs for interviews? Unexpected fees/costs?

 

[emtji]

about $3000, from the mcat to the taxi rides at the interviews. i applied to about 20 schools.
breakdown:
appr:

mcat: $175 or so
amcas: $720
secondary: $1600
travel: $400

gettin' in: $215,000


hehe

 

[Pre-Dent-David]

Watching your first patient die on the operating table: Priceless.






Yes.... That was horrible.

 

[RLMD]

Originally posted by granola
to all applicants from last cycle, how much total money did you spend on the entire application process?

How many schools did you apply to? How much on the secondaries? Travel costs for interviews? Unexpected fees/costs?

I probably spent a lot less than most in this process. I applied to 10 schools

AMCAS - $450
secondaries - about $600
travel - about $650 (did 6 interviews in two trips from texas to the east coast and had friends to stay with on both trips so no hotels or anything)

total - $1700 - 2 acceptances, 1 waitlist so far

 

[SolidGold]

With the AMCAS with 32 schools, secondary applications, and 8 interviews with air fare, food, hotels......I spent about $3,700. So far 3 acceptances and I'm going to one of my top choices. I say its worth it. I will have about $120,000 from medical school and I have $44,000 that I owe now for a Masters and some college loans. $3,700 was a bargain.😀

Plus, once my residency is done, my one year salary could equal something close to my debt.

 

[Nefertari]

What hurt me even more than the cost was 3-4 months of cumulative wage loss while studying for mcat, preparing amcas, 2ndaries, & interviewing, etc.

 

[SMW]

Close to $10,000 including AMCAS fee, MCAT prep course, secondary fees. clothing, postage, phone bills, and airfare and hotels. I applied to 23 schools cycle before last. Of course, I;m from Alaska, and airfare from here is expensive.

 

[Nefertari]

SMW,

Hey! How've you been? We've missed you! Are you heading to med school this fall?

 

[Blanch]

applied to 22
20 secondaries
11 interviews in 8 states
(my air fare was essentially free because I have a relative working for the airlines)

Total was between $5000 and $6000 + lost income from work due to 6 weeks of travelling for interviews

Worth it if accepted anywhere, but definately a heavy loss for the the 50% that don't get in (although their costs would likely be somewhat less due to fewer interviews)

My advice: Divide your schools into two or three batches. Apply to one batch of schools in June or July, then wait over a month and apply to the second batch and maybe even a third batch in September. This way you may have a good acceptance in hand by October or November so you don't have to waste your money interviewing at schools you are less interested in from the second and third batches. (All my applications went out at the same time and very late... a risky and expensive way to go).

Remember, most schools are rolling so you can be rolling to. Save the non-rolling ones for the last batch.

 

[rjhtamu]

I applied to about 10 schools, got 8 interviews. They were all in state (Texas), so I didn't have airfare or anything like that to worry about. My costs were under $1000.