How much money will it take to apply to med schools broadly and go to interviews?

[krispykreem]

I'm applying to med school in a couple years, and will need to save money for the applications from my part time job. I am just looking to get an estimate of how much money I will need to apply to 20-30 schools AND go to the (average amount of) interviews (that are usually offerred to those who apply to 20-30 broad range schools).

Also, my parents make about 60k combined, and I am the only child. Will I be able to get some sort of fee waiver for the applications?

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[SN12357]

AMCAS processing fee is $160 + $35 for each school after the first one. So you can do the math there.

You should be able to find out school secondary fees. I applied to 24 schools and the average secondary fee was $90. Only one school did a serious screen pre-secondary, so I had to pay all those secondary fees.

Number of interviews is impossible to predict and the cost of attending them varies. An applicant living and applying in the northeast isn't going to spend the same amount as an applicant on the West coast interviewing all around the country, etc.

 

[Ismet]

30 schools on AMCAS: $1175
30 secondaries (range from $25-$125 each, so we'll average $75): $2250

Say you get 10 interviews. Flights, gas, rental cars, hotel stays. All depends on how far you have to go for these interviews. I only applied to schools within a reasonable driving distance (max 8 hours), so I drove everywhere and only had 3 schools that I needed a hotel stay. 8 interviews probably ran me just over $1000, mainly just gas and 3 cheap hotels. If you live in Cali and you're applying to the east coast, add several thousand dollars on top of that.

I'm not familiar with what goes into the fee assistance program (FAP) but here is some information: https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/fap/#.UsctyWRDuHY

 

[sunkist206]

For a family of 3 people, the cut off is around 59K according to the federal poverty guidelines, so you might be able to qualify. This will waive the AMCAS fee for 14 schools. It will also cover any secondary fees (even more than 14) for schools that accept FAP, which most of them do.

 

[krispykreem]

For a family of 3 people, the cut off is around 59K according to the federal poverty guidelines, so you might be able to qualify. This will waive the AMCAS fee for 14 schools. It will also cover any secondary fees (even more than 14) for schools that accept FAP, which most of them do.

Hopefully I might. But the only person in my family that works is my step-dad, and he makes 60-65k a year, so I might not qualify. My mom doesn't work though.

 

[krispykreem]

30 schools on AMCAS: $1175
30 secondaries (range from $25-$125 each, so we'll average $75): $2250

Say you get 10 interviews. Flights, gas, rental cars, hotel stays. All depends on how far you have to go for these interviews. I only applied to schools within a reasonable driving distance (max 8 hours), so I drove everywhere and only had 3 schools that I needed a hotel stay. 8 interviews probably ran me just over $1000, mainly just gas and 3 cheap hotels. If you live in Cali and you're applying to the east coast, add several thousand dollars on top of that.

I'm not familiar with what goes into the fee assistance program (FAP) but here is some information: https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/fap/#.UsctyWRDuHY

Darn it, I guess I'm gonna have to spend a lotttt of money for interview travelling. Will have save up the money during 2 gap years by working full time.

 

[solitarius]

$5K - $10K

 

[krispykreem]

$5K - $10K

D@mn. I can buy a nice toyota corolla for that money

 

[solitarius]

If you're in Montana and have to fly everywhere, the cost will be higher. If you're in New Jersey and can drive to most places, the cost will be lower.

But yeah, each secondary costs $75 - $100 on average.

 

[GopherMD]

It cost me around $3500 for my application cycle last year (7 interviews total). Worth it though.

 

[rfvbnmju]

Darn it, I guess I'm gonna have to spend a lotttt of money for interview travelling. Will have save up the money during 2 gap years by working full time.

If you can get your step-dad to make some contribution to investment/HSA/retirement account etc..that can lower his tax liability to ~58k you can get the fee waiver.

 

[Hemorrage]

I applied broadly to roughly 25 schools. Been on 4 interviews so far and have spent nearly $2000 dollars just on flights/hotels. Couple in buying food, and other random travel expenses, the dollars add up really quickly.

I'd recommend saving $5000-7000 before applying.

 

[Espadaleader]

Where do you live?

I live in the Boston-Washington DC metro area so I am a 4-8 hour bus ride from every school I interviewed at (17)

If you don't know what the Bos-DC metro is click this link:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_megalopolis

NY State, Pennsylvania, Virginia, DC, New England, Ohio, North Carolina.

The schools in the northeast met my needs (state schools, Ivies, hometown etc.)

I only needed to fly once but flying round trip in the northeast is cheap (usually under 200). I also worked really hard to get hosted.

I spent about $1,000 on travel.

If you don't live in the Boston-Washington DC metro area than things will be much more expensive.

I also decided to apply to only schools in the Bos-DC area or close to it which includes most of the top 20, all of the NY, Mass, Conn, Virginia, Jersey state schools, all of the Ivies, schools like Virginia Tech, Temple, Duke etc.

You can save money too because schools are close.

For example, you can interview at Sinai, Downstate, Yale, Temple, Rutgers, Stony Brook, and Penn virtually back to back because they are all connected to the NY metro hub (Metro North, MJ Transit, express service to Philly from NYC)

Megabus is a good option. From DC to can pretty much get anywhere in the east coast.

If you farther south than virginia and/or farther west than Ohio it will be much harder/expensive to apply if you are not only applying in state because you will be require to fly.

 

[krispykreem]

Where do you live?

I live in the Boston-Washington DC metro area so I am a 4-8 hour bus ride from every school I interviewed at (17)

If you don't know what the Bos-DC metro is click this link:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_megalopolis

NY State, Pennsylvania, Virginia, DC, New England, Ohio, North Carolina.

The schools in the northeast met my needs (state schools, Ivies, hometown etc.)

I only needed to fly once but flying round trip in the northeast is cheap (usually under 200). I also worked really hard to get hosted.

I spent about $1,000 on travel.

If you don't live in the Boston-Washington DC metro area than things will be much more expensive.

I also decided to apply to only schools in the Bos-DC area or close to it which includes most of the top 20, all of the NY, Mass, Conn, Virginia, Jersey state schools, all of the Ivies, schools like Virginia Tech, Temple, Duke etc.

You can save money too because schools are close.

For example, you can interview at Sinai, Downstate, Yale, Temple, Rutgers, Stony Brook, and Penn virtually back to back because they are all connected to the NY metro hub (Metro North, MJ Transit, express service to Philly from NYC)

Megabus is a good option. From DC to can pretty much get anywhere in the east coast.

If you farther south than virginia and/or farther west than Ohio it will be much harder/expensive to apply if you are not only applying in state because you will be require to fly.

I live on the west coast (NOT cali), so I will have to spend a lot of money on flying to interviews.

 

[Espadaleader]

Honestly though, I got lucky with hosts (no hotels) but when you add in food, dry cleaning etc. I would bring up the total to $1,500. Adding in application fees brings it around to $2,000 and I did not pay for ANY SECONDARIES and applied to 14 schools for free. Secondaries for 14 schools can run $1500 easy.

If you're in the northeast with FAP (20 schools) $2,000+

Northeast without FAP ($5,000)

I can only imagine what Cali residents that apply out of state pay without FAP...

 

[funniful]

I live on the west coast (NOT cali), so I will have to spend a lot of money on flying to interviews.

The thing about FAP is you want to apply in the calendar year that you're applying - aka early January for that year's summer AMCAS submission. Somehow I had missed this information and applied in the Fall to receive the MCAT reduced fee for my October test date based on the previous year's income levels when I was still in school and on full aid. Didn't realize this till May when I was preparing to submit in June and learned that my FAP had expired in January. When I went to reapply, I didn't qualify anymore for aid because I had my earnings from my full-time job the previous year that pushed me over the limit by 1k.

On top of that, I didn't know what my chances were of getting into med school so I applied to broad range of schools (geographically, culture, ranking wise). 33 schools all out of pocket as a CA resident.

Primary ~$1200
Secondaries ~$2300
Interviews ~$2000+

I had to lump 6 of my east coast schools (east meaning anything that required a flight out of CA) in a 2 week block and heavily utilized student hosts, NY metro hub and buses up and down the coast which rounded out my costs to ~$1000. That is to say that I'm still not done interviewing and at this point I don't know if I frankly can afford another east coast leg. I was also extremely fortunate to get an early acceptance which allowed to me cut out a third of my schools as well.

I'm currently reaching $10K on this entire process and have heard similar figures from other west coast applicants. I had some support from my mom, but all in all this would not have been financially feasible if I did not take 1-2 years off to work full-time give my family's low income.

In hindsight, to further cut down on costs I would have not taken the Kaplan course ($2100) and applied to fewer schools (15-20). Also if you're starting to save up now, it may also help to start racking up on mileage points through credit card bonus programs and get your family involved as well. Flights were the most expensive part of the whole interviewing deal.

If its any consolation, there are people on the interview trail who are flying back internationally for interviews which must cost a fortune. So definitely try to stay in the country during interview season if you can.

 

[TurkDorian]

For a family of 3 people, the cut off is around 59K according to the federal poverty guidelines, so you might be able to qualify. This will waive the AMCAS fee for 14 schools. It will also cover any secondary fees (even more than 14) for schools that accept FAP, which most of them do.

Do you know if this Fee Waive also applies for Canadian Applicants?

 

[mcloaf]

I live on the west coast (NOT cali), so I will have to spend a lot of money on flying to interviews.

Oregon, perhaps?

 

[sunkist206]

Do you know if this Fee Waive also applies for Canadian Applicants?

From the AAMC site: "In addition, you are eligible for FAP only if you are a U.S. citizen, U.S. National, a lawful permanent resident (LPR) of the United States ("Green Card" holder), or have been granted refugee/asylum status by the U.S. government. Individuals who have been granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) by the U.S. government are not eligible for FAP."

 

[MedWonk]

I'm applying to med school in a couple years, and will need to save money for the applications from my part time job. I am just looking to get an estimate of how much money I will need to apply to 20-30 schools AND go to the (average amount of) interviews (that are usually offerred to those who apply to 20-30 broad range schools).

Also, my parents make about 60k combined, and I am the only child. Will I be able to get some sort of fee waiver for the applications?

23 schools on AMCAS + secondaries + travel for interviews came out to about $3200. Some secondary fees are ridiculous. It also didn't help that I went west for an interview. I was actually fortunate in that I could just drive myself to most of my interviews.

 

[solitarius]

23 schools on AMCAS + secondaries + travel for interviews came out to about $3200. Some secondary fees are ridiculous. It also didn't help that I went west for an interview. I was actually fortunate in that I could just drive myself to most of my interviews.

Drive = < $3,700
Fly to a few > $5,000
Fly to a lot/coast-to-coast --> $10,000

 

[Chipster.]

This is streampaw we're talking about guys... how many interviews do we think she'll get?