Price of Interviewing

[Misterioso]

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I'd like to get an idea of about how much people have spent doing interviews (plane tickets, hotels, and other associated costs).

It would be helpful to preface by saying how many total interviews you've attended and in how many different cities.

Thanks! 🙂

 

[Poety]

about 5K for 10 interviews, but thats because I had to fly out of Philly and do overnight turnarounds - If you stay an extra day, or leave from a different airport its a lot cheaper. My tickets for example were about 400/each average.

 

[monkey7247]

about 5K for 10 interviews, but thats because I had to fly out of Philly and do overnight turnarounds - If you stay an extra day, or leave from a different airport its a lot cheaper. My tickets for example were about 400/each average.

I ended up around 6K for 12 interviews.

 

[BStein76]

I'd like to get an idea of about how much people have spent doing interviews (plane tickets, hotels, and other associated costs).

It would be helpful to preface by saying how many total interviews you've attended and in how many different cities.

Thanks! 🙂

5.5 K for ~9 interviews; clustered my interviews in December so my flights were more expensive since I scheduled some shortly after I got the invitation. I was able to get the Bay Area interviews together. Some of my classmates scheduled their NYC, Boston, Philly interviews together to save money (Amtrakked it or drove between the cities).

 

[Mumpu]

$2,000 for six interviews, I carefully scheduled interviews in adjacent geographical areas so I only had to make short hops from city to city (e.g. you can fly to Seattle, then hop to Portland, hop to San Fran, hop to LA, etc.).

 

[tridoc13]

About $1500 for 7 interviews. I did all four CO interviews in one week and stayed with friends who let me borrow their cars to drive all over the state. Also, when I cancelled at one place due to financial reasons the RD offered to pay for my airfare, hotel for two days and rental car. Hard to say no to that. I posted this on another thread, but for those who are struggling with the cost of airfare, the AAMC and American are offering a little help...

The AAMC has renewed an agreement with American Airlines to offer discounts for senior medical students traveling to interviews for residency programs.

Valid travel dates are October 1, 2005 - May 31, 2006.

Discount is 5%% off the lowest applicable coach fare.

Discount is not currently applicable to internet fares.

Tickets should be purchased at least seven days prior to departure in order to receive the discount.

Discounts/fares are valid for round-trip travel on American Airlines and American Eagle to your meeting destination for travel from anywhere in the contiguous 48 states, Hawaii and Canada. Seats are limited. Certain restrictions may apply. Applicable taxes and service charges may apply. Please call for details.

For reservations and ticketing information, call American Airline's Meeting Services Desk, or have your travel professional call (800) 433-1790 and reference the AAMC Index #17603.

Information is available from the OSR Website: http://www.aamc.org/members/osr/discounts.htm

 

[neilc]

i spent about 5k, went on 8 interviews. i had several long flights with overnights, and spent about a week on the east coast.

a note about carefully scheduling geographically....while that sounds great, it was pretty difficult to actually do. programs send invites at very different times, and it was impossible for me to get much grouped together. also, a lot of the dates were not compatible. so, don't bank on beign able to do that.

it was freakin expensive. i would say go to the programs you think you will like better earlier, as you will run out of money or energy for the process, and it would suck to have some of your best programs remaining, as you are not going to want to cancel those.

 

[neilc]

i used cheaptickets.com and hotels.com which got me pretty darn good prices for the most part. that AA discount was never even close to the lowest price, in my case. also, southwest and jet blue are great and cheap.

 

[orientedtoself]

4K for 11 interviews, 10 of which were out of state. Southwest and kayak.com are good places to get plane tickets for cheap.

 

[CANES2006]

5K for 9 interviews. 😱 I had to fly out to all of my interviews since I live in Miami. I refused to go to more interviews because I was tired and am now broke. 🙄 😀

 

[mosche]

$1500. for five interviews (includes some frivolous shopping!).

 

[CTKN2]

$1300 for 7 interviews so far in 4 different states (California, Chicago, New York, New Jersey) - this includes buying a new suit, car rentals, gas, flying 3 times (out of state twice), and staying at a hotel/inn for 2 of my interviews. Fortunately, I was able to stay with friends/family for the other 5 interviews - which has saved me **lots** of money - and I was able to schedule 3 interviews in the same city all at once. I have 3 more to go, and I'm still trying to find a way to not spend more than I need to. I don't think I'll spend more than $300 more since only one interview is out of state, and I'm likely driving or taking the train.

Try travelocity, travelzoo, hotwire, priceline for flights and rental cars. Southwest also has good deals.

Also, I think this is why it's important to submit apps early - so that you can get the interview dates early and schedule them more readily with the dates that you want.

 

[Flea girl]

I think I will have spent 8k for 18 interviews. Had to fly out for all of them. I am interviewing mostly on the east coast and that gets costly flying out of Colorado. And rented cars at most places. Yup, I am bit nuts and I still have 4 more interviews . Oh well, it was worth it to me.

 

[Mumpu]

The American Airlines "deal" is a total ripoff. Mobissimo.com is awesome for searching through all airlines and travel websites.

 

[Espion]

I think I will hit $3500 for 19 interviews. How does one do this?! 😱

Flying to and from El Paso is not even an option. Way too expensive. I haven't been home since December 2nd and won't go back until January 25th. I've been living like I'm on the run from the LAW.

I've basically managed by having family in very convenient locations. It also helps to fly with one way tickets hopping all over the country. My tickets on Southwest average around the $89 price, because I had the good luck to schedule the majority of my interviews grouped in their respective regions. Sign up for the "Click and Save" mailer for Southwest as well. It will save you some serious cash.

And, of course, I stay in some ghetto hotels at times.

But what seriously kicks me in the rear is the rental cars (and I don't rent every place I go, if I did, I would easily hit the $5k). I have no idea how to deflect this cost.

 

[ExtraCrispy]

Mine's going to come out to roughly 1..5-2K for 18 interviews. I restricted myself to a local geographic area, which has helped enormously - no flights, just hotel fare and gas for the car.

 

[monkey7247]

But what seriously kicks me in the rear is the rental cars (and I don't rent every place I go, if I did, I would easily hit the $5k). I have no idea how to deflect this cost.

I've consistently gotten good rates on car rentals by going through Enterprise and using their AMEX discount code AMXCNL. Saves about 25%

 

[Poety]

Rental Cars:

rentalcars.com you can name your own price, I've gotten them marked down from 64.99/day to 20.00 a day!

for flights check:

kayak.com
southwest.com
usa3000.com
spirit.com
travelocity.com (and even if they give you a hotel, select hotel + flight and you get a deeper discount)
usairways.com (on Tuesday nights or Thursdays)

Hope this helps someone if not this year - then next year!

 

[Mumpu]

You have to do the math with rental cars. I stayed in hotels within walking distance (or hotel courtesy shuttle) of interview sites and took public transportation to/from the airports. It came out the same as cheap-ass motels plus a rental in my math and I picked nicer living.

 

[FACS]

Five dollars. I walk everywhere with my trusty backpack and I havn't eaten in two months. 😎

 

[p54]

not much....luckily all the programs i would like to go to are within 4-5 hrs driving range. Also they have paid for my hotels, all meals basically, and i leave the next day right after the interview is over so i really don't have to spend any money on extra food. Only thing i've spend $ on is gas. So out of 6 interviews i'd say maybe $300-400 including gas 👍 👍

 

[FACS]

not much....luckily all the programs i would like to go to are within 4-5 hrs driving range.

Yeah it's sort of a no-brainer. It's the airfare and hotels that do the damage.

 

[atsai3]

I'd like to get an idea of about how much people have spent doing interviews (plane tickets, hotels, and other associated costs).

It would be helpful to preface by saying how many total interviews you've attended and in how many different cities.

Thanks! 🙂

$2590, 12994 miles flown, 1238 miles driven, 35.25 hours spent on a plane. So painful. 11 interviews and one second look.

-AT.

 

[locitamd]

The AAMC has renewed an agreement with American Airlines to offer discounts for senior medical students traveling to interviews for residency programs.

Discount is 5%% off the lowest applicable coach fare.

Just an FYI, they are sticklers about the 7 day advance purchase...

 

[chicamedica]

$2400 for 16 interviews, including away rotation expenses (since i did 3 interviews in the area during the away). Had to fly to a bunch of places, but hotels at most programs were paid for.

 

[chicamedica]

$2400 for 16 interviews, including >$500 of away rotation expenses (since i did 3 interviews in the area during the away). Had to fly to a bunch of places, but hotels at most programs were paid for 😍 . Still pretty steep, especially after shelling out $1500 for step 2. i dont know how u guys who spent 5K+ get by!

 

[Sugar72]

i have spent just around $700 for 9 interviews. I have one more road trip, one flight to buy for 3 more interviews. I drove to almost all of my interviews. I flew to one interview and did 2 in the city I rotated last month (at my momma's for xmas!) I think my total will probably come to a little more than $1000. This is much less than I anticipated. I am lucky because most anesthesiology departments will pay for your hotel and feed you!