Interview Costs

[BRCA1]

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In general, how much did you get interview costs (lodging, food) covered by programs? I have a friends that matched in peds, IM, FM, etc. this year and they seemed to indicate that they were taken care of very well. Basically just had to pay for their transportation costs... Seems like my other friends who were shooting for ortho, uro, neurosurg, ENT, etc. had to cover essentially everything on their own.

 

[Sheldor]

In general, how much did you get interview costs (lodging, food) covered by programs? I have a friends that matched in peds, IM, FM, etc. this year and they seemed to indicate that they were taken care of very well. Basically just had to pay for their transportation costs... Seems like my other friends who were shooting for ortho, uro, neurosurg, ENT, etc. had to cover essentially everything on their own.

Unfortunately, Rad Onc gets lumped in with those that have to cover everything on their own. There are a small handful of places that pay for your hotel, but thats it. (MD Anderson, Wisconsin, Buffalo, etc.)

A good rule of thumb for me was about $500 average. Some cost less and some more, depending on all the various variables for that city. For example, I paid $20 to rent a car at one place, but the flight was one of the more expensive, while another interview the flight was dirt cheap but I paid closer to $80 to rent a car.

That said, I'd budget for a $500 average, and if you have money left over all the better!

Also, for what its worth, I went on way too many intern year interviews. I'd cut it off at 6 Ty's with a couple Prelims as well. Good luck!

 

[Seldon1985]

Just about all the costs will be on you. MDACC and Wisconsin covering their hotels were highly welcome - and great considering the top notch nature of those programs anyway. Try to be intelligent about scheduling your interviews and lump some trips together. I was once gone for about 2 weeks, but hit many interviews along the way and kept my costs pretty low compared to my colleagues. Also, if you're from a big city with tons of flights vs smaller town with more expensive and less flights, that will play into the cost factor.

 

[deleted4401]

If you're a good candidate, it's a drop in the bucket and will pay off in spades. Get the travel loan or put it on a card with a good APR. Don't be overly stingy- sleep in decent places, try to go on non stop flights, and share some costs with others (taxis and such). It's not a big deal, really. It's the last time you'll be so poor in your life. I did the travel loan (could get 12k at the time at a not bad interest rate).

 

[Neuronix]

What Simul is saying is that all those times I was told "I didn't know this city had a hostel" probably didn't help me .

Or that time a faculty member graciously drove me back to my hotel only to find someone getting arrested in front of my room. I didn't know the place was in a row next to all the strip joints. I swear!!!!


My advice was always to fly Southwest if at all reasonable. The no change fees came in handy many times.

 

[medgator]

My advice was always to fly Southwest if at all reasonable. The no change fees came in handy many times.

Very good advice. Unfortunately, those of you in smaller markets are likely out of luck. No one else AFAIK refunds 100% of a fare for credit on a future flight when you have to change a reservation for any reason.

Another way I saved money was to book one trip with multiple flights once I had confirmation of a few dates around each other, instead of flying back and forth from home.

 

[Sheldor]

Very good advice. Unfortunately, those of you in smaller markets are likely out of luck. No one else AFAIK refunds 100% of a fare for credit on a future flight when you have to change a reservation for any reason.

Another way I saved money was to book one trip with multiple flights once I had confirmation of a few dates around each other, instead of flying back and forth from home.

Few other money saving tips I discovered:

1) Third the southwest suggestion, use this as often as you can for the reasons outlined above. The Priority boarding for $12.50 is sort of a rip off, but make sure you do it for the legs of trips where you will be busy 24 hours before the flight. I was often at interview dinners when I was supposed to check in, and got in the low B group a couple times, which made it dicey to get overhead bin space for my suits. So, if you know you'll be busy, cough up for the priority boarding.

2) Kayak.com and southwest.com should be the two sites you used to find the cheapest airfares. Kayak aggregates nearly all the airlines except southwest and jetblue, so is a great resource to figure out which airline has the cheapest flights to where you are going. I highly recommend Delta if you can find it, if your flight is delayed even 5 minutes, you can move up to an earlier flight for FREE. This got me out of some dinky airports and home earlier at least a few times. Also you can make these changes from the delta app, very easy.

3) Hotwire.com for hotels and car rentals during the couple weeks leading up to your trip. Hotwire, aim for the three star hotels because they often come with free parking, Wi-fi and breakfast. The four stars are tempting (I did this a few times) and then paid $40 for parking and $10 for wi-fi, ugh.

4) Rental cars through hotwire are amazing. I often paid far less than my co-applicants who took taxis, so don't automatically assume that taxi's are cheaper!

5) For men, check out Jos. A Bank, I got three suits for the price of one before interview season. This was very useful for the middle of december when you have so many interviews in a row you don't have time to dry clean your suit.

6) Travel tip - If your ideal garment bag is too big, remember that you can "gate check" for free as well. This cuts out the middle man, so they take it from the ramp onto the plane, and then you pick it up at the ramp again. Personally, i got a rolling garment bag from Briggs and Riley that was amazing, and after over 60 flights still looks new, and will likely last for decades. Best part was that it fit in the over head bin, win!

 

[medgator]

3) Hotwire.com for hotels and car rentals during the couple weeks leading up to your trip. Hotwire, aim for the three star hotels because they often come with free parking, Wi-fi and breakfast. The four stars are tempting (I did this a few times) and then paid $40 for parking and $10 for wi-fi, ugh.

Forgot about that. Hotwire is great, although you don't find out which exact hotel you are staying at until after you decide to book at that price. Priceline is the other way to do that, where you basically specify the star-level, location within the city and price you are willing to pay. Can also be a great way to score a hotel room on the cheap in the specific desired location of the city you'll be interviewing at. You are generally safe with priceline and hotwire because you are specifying beforehand what star level and location you want for the prospective hotel.

And yes, it's very true that the high-end hotels charge you for everything, while the mid-range ones will have "suites" with the couch, microwave, fridge etc. and give you free wi-fi, parking and breakfast. It's really ironic because you also pay less for these mid-range hotels while you get more in amenities.

 

[Totem]

Few other money saving tips I discovered:

1) Third the southwest suggestion, use this as often as you can for the reasons outlined above. The Priority boarding for $12.50 is sort of a rip off, but make sure you do it for the legs of trips where you will be busy 24 hours before the flight. I was often at interview dinners when I was supposed to check in, and got in the low B group a couple times, which made it dicey to get overhead bin space for my suits. So, if you know you'll be busy, cough up for the priority boarding.
!

All great suggestions Sheldor.

Just FYI, beginning 24 hours before departure, you can check in online at Southwest.com for free, and you are assigned your boarding number at that time. When I remembered to do this, I would always get a decent place in line.

 

[thesauce]

Apply for some credit cards with free flights as a bonus. Southwest has (had?) 2RT flights with a new card.

Sign up for all of the major frequent flyer programs.

Priceline bid for hotels, rental cars, and flights (if you can).

For men: get the Skyroll bag from Men's Wearhouse. It your suit is from MW, they will press it for you as often as you want for free.

Got through 26 interviews all over the country for under $5k. To be fair, I drove to most of them. I flew to anything that was more than 700 miles round-trip.

 

[Totem]

For car rentals, I used www.carrentals.com . It was often cheaper than hotwire or priceline and the best part is you don't prepay when you make a reservation. So I would often make a reservation a few weeks in advance and then if Hotwire published a lower price as my travel date approached (or Carrentals.com went down in price), I could cancel the original carrentals.com reservation without a problem.