Overall cost of application process

[asdasd12345]

Can anyone who has applied and interviewed at med schools give me an estimate of how much it costs per application, and then flying out to cities, getting a hotel room to interview and what not? I could imagine it gets up to the thousands.

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[Eraserhead]

Per application, budget about 400-500 for everything- flight, fees, etc. Then and only then will you be pleased with the final results of how much you spend.

Then there's second look weekends, if you go to those. I'm spending about 300 to get to SD and back for mine and look for housing. Sucks.

 

[Megalofyia]

I've spent about 4,000 on everything so far. Applications, secondaries, flying places, hotels, food, etc..

And now I'm finding out that some schools can have rather expensive fees to hold a spot if your accepted and waiting on other schools.

This is not a cheap process.

 

[Eraserhead]

I really have no idea how much I've spent exactly but my guess is it was well over 5,000.

 

[LaurieB]

AMCAS submissions are $150 for the first school and $30 for each additional.

My secondary fees were on average $65, with a range of $35-100.

I only had two away interviews. Drove to one and flew to the other. My flight was $400 because it was right after thanksgiving and I had to book on short notice.

Overall, I think I spent less on the process than most people. Expect to spend between $1000-3000.

Hope this helps!

 

[duka]

your heart, soul, and sanity.

 

[asdasd12345]

it certainly is no joke is it. so do you lot get help from your folks or something, or do you just have a part time job to help pay for it?

 

[Heal&Teach]

Originally posted by duka
your heart, soul, and sanity.

...plus an arm and a leg. Guess I haven't spent as much as some folks, but I definitely have spent at least $3000 dollars on AMCAS, secondaries, and travel. I've been lucky to avoid the lodging costs since most of the schools I applied to are close to where I used to live or near friends, as well as being afforded two great student hosts.

 

[Blade28]

Cost me quite a bit when I was applying...around $50 per application, then you gotta add airfare ($300+), hotel ($75+), etc. I also had to buy a suit.

 

[Megalofyia]

Originally posted by asdasd12345
it certainly is no joke is it. so do you lot get help from your folks or something, or do you just have a part time job to help pay for it?

My parents had said they'd help my finance this last summer. It didn't work out that way at all. I had a job that paid well and basically went through my entire savings.

 

[Fritz]

I've spent 840 for AMCAS, and then about 1900 on secondaries. I flew to 4 interviews, all of them were between the end of October, and the beginning of December. I drove to one interview since it was nearby. The other interviews cost me about 1300 (all together). Everything was about 4000. But I was lucky because I got in during the month of December, ( I got answers from all the schools about 2 weeks after interview) and I cancelled all my other interviews, and I withdrew everywhere else. I know people that had to fly to a lot of places and it ended up costing a lot more.

Hope this helps,

Good luck!

Fritz.

 

[scrabbler]

I feel like I was really lucky in the way things worked out for me, and I'd like to chip in that it is possible to cut down on some of the costs. I'm from CA but I go to an east coast school. I only applied to CA schools and east coast schools travellable to by train, and managed to squeeze all my CA school interviews during my school vacations. I only stayed with student hosts or friends so that I didn't have to pay for hotels. Including the costs of taking the MCAT, buying interview clothes, AMCAS, secondaries, and going to nine interviews, I still managed to stay under $2000. I think I'll be a tiny bit over $2000 after second looks next month.

So look carefully at schools that you might be interested in going to that are nearby, and I think most schools also offer student host programs for free. And especially with non-rolling schools or rolling schools that start letting people know of decisions late, try to group interviews in the same cities together instead of immediately booking for the first date possible.

 

[jtorres]

i live right oustide of ft. worth texas and the farthest med school is 6 hrs away (texas tech). i plan on just driving to wherever i am granted an interview and staying with a student host. i would rather spend fifty bucks on two tanks of gas that spend 200 on a plane ticket. southwest airlines is relatively cheap but you need to give two weeks notice and buy ticket then. maybe i'm wrong but aside form the TMDSAS app and the secondaries, i dont see how yall have spent so much $$$.

 

[SaltySqueegee]

uh... yeah... 7K ... not that I'm proud or anything...

 

[Eraserhead]

Originally posted by MDTom
uh... yeah... 7K ... not that I'm proud or anything...

my total is probably more like 7K, but being the frugal man i am i didn't keep track of anything

 

[exmike]

50+ primaries, 40+ secondaries + 10 interviews attended (flights, hotels, food, transportation) + suit, shoes = $8,630.

acceptance = priceless.

it wont be cheap, but it'll be worth it!

 

[Eraserhead]

don't forget money for food in airports and
money to clean your suit (15 bucks a pop for me)

 

[Megalofyia]

Originally posted by jtorres
i live right oustide of ft. worth texas and the farthest med school is 6 hrs away (texas tech). i plan on just driving to wherever i am granted an interview and staying with a student host. i would rather spend fifty bucks on two tanks of gas that spend 200 on a plane ticket. southwest airlines is relatively cheap but you need to give two weeks notice and buy ticket then. maybe i'm wrong but aside form the TMDSAS app and the secondaries, i dont see how yall have spent so much $$$.

Hmm lets see.. TMDSAS application + AMCAS application + DO application + 14 or so secondaries + flying to 8 interviews (one was in my home town so that was free - the 8 others were out of state) + hotels at two interviews that didnt have student hosts + 50 dollars at one interview to stay with student hosts = alot of money

Any Texan that feels confident in their application to only apply in state is very lucky; it saves much money.

 

[Beth_yu]

Originally posted by exmike
50+ primaries, 40+ secondaries + 10 interviews attended (flights, hotels, food, transportation) + suit, shoes = $8,630.

acceptance = priceless.

it wont be cheap, but it'll be worth it!

EEEeek... that is a semester of my tuition fee!!!

 

[felipe5]

Originally posted by duka
your heart, soul, and sanity.

not to mention your ego.....stupid waitlists and rejections

 

[funkless]

If one counts the Kaplan/MCAT as part of the application process, I spent about $6000 all said and told.

--Funkless

 

[lilmo]

Whoa! The amount of $$$ shelled out in this whole med school process amazes me. I suppose it's an investment though. Coming from Kansas, there is only one school in-state and it's within driving distance--yahoo! And then I only applied to 2 Texas schools within driving distance of my parent's house (TCOM and Southwestern) all for a grand cost of under $400. If you plan ahead you can totally budget. Good luck!

 

[RAwe]

Its because of SDN that I'm aware of how much this process costs. I'm applying in few years and I am putting away $80 a month($20 each week) to lessen some of the cost for me. I'm sure I'll appreciate the sacrifice in the end.

 

[Megalofyia]

Originally posted by RAwe
Its because of SDN that I'm aware of how much this process costs. I'm applying in few years and I am putting away $80 a month($20 each week) to lessen some of the cost for me. I'm sure I'll appreciate the sacrifice in the end.

That's actually a really wise move. I wish I had done that instead of having to blow my savings.

 

[elias514]

I applied to 7 medical schools (Dartmouth, Baylor, U Mich, Vanderbilt, WashU, University of Kansas, and U Chicago). I live in Austin, TX, and I ended up interviewing at 5 of these schools. I think that I spent in the neighborhood of $3000 total--this figure includes the central application fee, secondary fees at individual schools, airfare and accomodations, food, and clothing. The process is ridiculously expensive. I don't know how people who interview at 10+ schools manage to afford it.

My advice to a future applicant: become a resident of Texas and apply to Texas schools. If you're a pre-med, it's an awesome state to be a legal resident of. 5 state med schools + a semi-private med school...2 of these schools are top 20 and are dirt cheap. As a TX resident, you have a 50% chance of gaining admission to one of these schools.

I wish I were a Texas resident. Must be nice.

 

[youcandoit]

(I posted this before at http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?threadid=92394 but here it is again

$3712

Here's the depressing breakdown:
Kaplan MCAT course - 1349
MCAT registration - 185
AMCAS fee - 600 (16 schools)
AACOM fee - 375 (DO schools, used as backup)
secondary fees - 1085 (12 allopathic, 2 osteopathic)
LOR mailings - 84
transcript mailings - 34

I didn't include interview fees because I haven't had to fly anywhere or stay overnight in a hotel. Most were day trips. Also, I didn't complete all my secondary applications, because either I realized I would not likely get in, or I didn't actually want to go there, or the application was too hard and I didn't feel like finishing it ("laziness"). Also, I knew from the outset that I only actually was considering about 2 of the osteopathic schools, but I heard at a PCOM presentation that they can kind of tell when a student applies to only 1 or 2 DO schools and thus frown a person using DO as backup. So I could have saved money there, I guess. Finally, the secondary fees ranged from $55 (Temple) to $100 (NYMC, Albany)

Hope this helps. Thank gosh my parents were able to help out with some of this, otherwise I'd be a financial mess. Its been totally worth it, though.

PS - as for how to pay, I paid the Kaplan fee and the MCAT fee (I figured I'd be more likely to study hard and buckle down if I knew how it felt to write a check for that much!) To do this, I just saved some money from work. My parents helped out with the AMCAS, AACOM, and many secondary fees; it sucks having to ask for money, but otherwise I couldn't afford it. Bless their hearts!