limiting costs

[obiwan]

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what are you guys doing in terms of limiting costs during all your interviews?

 

[Non-TradTulsa]

what are you guys doing in terms of limiting costs during all your interviews?

I'm seriously considering driving to Phoenix from Tulsa, which is 15 hours and about 1,100 miles. I have two interviews there in December. Before this year, I would never even have thought about driving - but it may save me a pile of money, even though it will involve several extra hotel days. Rental cars have gotten breathtakingly expensive - used to be I had no trouble getting a $19.95 deal somewhere, but fleets have been cut back drastically and it's easy now to pay $65/day, even with a decent deal.

If you're willing to take public transportation, you could forget the steep rental car bill - but I draw the line at being in a major city that I don't visit all that often without a car. Sitting in a hotel room knowing I have no vehicle makes me feel like a trapped rat.

 

[theunderdog]

What I did was took vacation time off for interviews. I made my parent's house as my interviewing headquarters. Since most of my apps are in a particular region, I'm scheduling all of those during that vacation time. And I'm using my parent's house as the starting point. I save a lot of money on flights and hotels. My parents house is in that region.

For all other interviews, I scheduled them in another month. I am limiting the number of these interviews of course.

 

[motoo]

the web forums below should be really helpful. people basically post how low they were able to go on priceline.com for hotels, rental cars etc. when I was looking for st. louis, rental cars could be had for as little as $15 /day

http://biddingfortravel.yuku.com/

 

[Non-TradTulsa]

the web forums below should be really helpful. people basically post how low they were able to go on priceline.com for hotels, rental cars etc. when I was looking for st. louis, rental cars could be had for as little as $15 /day

http://biddingfortravel.yuku.com/

Very nice - that's a new one for me. Thanks for the post.

 

[Frugal Traveler]

Despite my screen name, it has been difficult to be frugal!

 

[ShyRem]

I am doing away rotations near most of my applied to programs and am scheduling my interviews during that time. Trade off: I'm away from my family for 12 weeks. But I can drive to most of my interviews in 4 hours or less. Also doing away rotations at places I'm applying to - most programs will give your interview while you're there - and check to see if the away rotation provides housing of some sort. I am painfully coming to the realization that some programs that are a 14-15 hour drive away I will have to turn down the interview. Gas is expensive and they don't pay for a hotel room. Not to mention eating out.

Unfortunately scheduling all the interviews together just isn't possible, as some programs offer significantly fewer days than others for interviews, some want to be done by mid-November, some don't start until November... it just isn't feasible to lump them all together in a week or two.

 

[doc20]

try to interview with your fellow classmates or friends,
share hotel, share car costs
live close to a hotel near the program, that offers free rides
find out old contacts or friends at the place interviewing and see if they offer to let u bunk at their place

 

[sam1999]

try to interview with your fellow classmates or friends,
share hotel, share car costs
live close to a hotel near the program, that offers free rides
find out old contacts or friends at the place interviewing and see if they offer to let u bunk at their place

Do you really want to interview at the same time, at same institution, as your fellow classmates? As they are your competitors as well?

 

[Bito42]

not applying/interviewing anywhere unless there's a decent 'pre-interview probability' that i could end up there