Saving for Application season?????

[Lasofloxabuterol]

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Hello, I was just wondering whether it would be a good idea to begin saving a "pot of cash" for applications from now (I am a freshman). I have the luxury of my parents paying for my schooling in addition to the scholarships I had received and I do not want to ask them for 4-8k or take out any loans until I have to for med school when the time comes. Is this reasonable, and is 4-8k an average cost for an app cycle. Any thoughts appreciated....

 

[deleted947265]

Yes.

 

[candbgirl]

Can’t hurt. And if you decide not to apply to med school you can take a big trip. I’m all for traveling.

 

[AMCASTuesdays]

Can't hurt to save at all. This process was a big L financial wise

 

[Cornfed101]

Saving money is always a good idea. Put it in a money market account (basically a high yield savings account). I know you are a few years off, but here are some tips to save money on the application cycle:

• Be smart about where you apply. Normally it is a bad idea to apply to 30+ schools. I did this and I shouldn't have
• Apply for FAP if you qualify
• Use flights.google.com or skiplagged to find good flight deals. This advice sometimes changes because airlines can remove their flights from websites as they please. Right now, these are the best I've found.
• Be willing to drive if you are within 7 hours of an interview location
• Stay with student hosts or an Airbnb. I am interviewing on the east coast next week and found a place for $25. Good luck finding a hotel that cheap!

Even though I applied to 30+ schools I will be closer to $4k because I have spent about $800 total across the 6 interviews I attended (drove to half, flew to half).

 

[IDapplicant]

Definitely save money! To add to the conversation of minimizing costs, the best thing I did was to open a credit card with bonus airline points for spending X amount of money in 3 months. Easily met the minimum with applications and flew to a couple interviews for free.

 

[microbionerd]

I saved about 10K and spent 5k on apps alone. Definitely make a good list because there were a few schools I should not have thrown money at.

Taking a gap year and working through apps helped too because I was able to save an additional 2k so I still have a solid 5k in savings.

 

[Lasofloxabuterol]

Would you also consider saving for med school as well (gas, food, misc items.....)?? I ask this because I assume anything would help reduce the debt burden of med school loans.

 

[Cornfed101]

Would you also consider saving for med school as well (gas, food, misc items.....)?? I ask this because I assume anything would help reduce the debt burden of med school loans.

Yeah, save as much as you freaking can. If you can pay for med school with cash that would be ideal. Until you have that much money saved, keep saving.

 

[Goro]

Hello, I was just wondering whether it would be a good idea to begin saving a "pot of cash" for applications from now (I am a freshman). I have the luxury of my parents paying for my schooling in addition to the scholarships I had received and I do not want to ask them for 4-8k or take out any loans until I have to for med school when the time comes. Is this reasonable, and is 4-8k an average cost for an app cycle. Any thoughts appreciated....

Working and saving up for something in the future is a valuable and admired skill set. Being a thoughtful child, even more admirable! I believe that ~$5K is the number bandied about for app season costs.

 

[KnightDoc]

Would you also consider saving for med school as well (gas, food, misc items.....)?? I ask this because I assume anything would help reduce the debt burden of med school loans.

Of course, save as much as you can, always! That said, don't freak out over the thought of taking on debt for this. It really is an investment in your future, and is therefor considered "good" debt, as opposed to borrowing for Starbucks or a vacation, so don't skimp on spending what you need to spend for applications, interviews, MCAT prep, etc., even if you haven't saved enough and need to take on some debt.

Personally, I'd swallow my pride and get what I could from my parents rather than borrowing if I didn't have to, but that's your call. Either way, this is going to be a very expensive undertaking, and you can't possibly save too much up front if you have an ability to do so.