When you get a secondary invite from a DO school...

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The auto screen requirements for many of these schools are well below the average competitive stats of their incoming classes. I would think for many it is the latter lol -___-
 
well someone has to pay for the interview cost; hence the secondary fee
 
feeling-dizzy said:
well someone has to pay for the interview cost; hence the secondary fee
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That's not a valid statement. Not everyone gets to go to an interview. I would more likely say that the money is for the administrative costs, but honestly, they are already paid by salary, and it won't cost the school extra for this.

For example, why do some schools charge $2000+ nonrefundable deposit for a seat, while others only charge $100 refundable deposit? Really, they're just making money off of you.
 
feeling-dizzy said:
yes, that the whole point, a lot of people will pay the secondary fees for a few to go to the interview. Kinda like Medicare and welfare
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Then explain why do some schools charge $1500+ nonrefundable deposit for a seat? In the end, it is just a money-making business.

$50*7000 applicants is already $350,000 from just secondaries. All the people in that school are already paid by salary, and also perhaps tenured. They're not incurring more costs to the school for this.

Medicare? Eventually, everyone uses Medicare. You're paying long term to use it whenever you need it when you get old.
 
mathnerd88 said:
Then explain why do some schools charge $1500+ nonrefundable deposit for a seat? In the end, it is just a money-making business.

$50*7000 applicants is already $350,000 from just secondaries.
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Think of the deposit is like a private auction; it usually require an entrance fee before you can bid. So $1500 is the entrance fee; and 300k is the money you have to pay for your seat (finance, loan, whatever)
 
feeling-dizzy said:
Think of the deposit is like a private auction; it usually require an entrance fee before you can bid. So $1500 is the entrance fee; and 300k is the money you have to pay for your seat (finance, loan, whatever)
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But the point is, it's not. Med schools are nothing like private auctions.
 
You bid with your MCAT score, research, volunteer...Now you tell me those don't cost you anything
 
feeling-dizzy said:
You bid with your MCAT score, research, volunteer...Now you tell me those don't cost you anything
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The only thing that cost me money was my MCAT exam, which is understandable. Nothing else costs actual money.

You're actually gaining experience from all the other aspects of your application, so I don't see how it is comparable to money. I get as much as I put in.

Look, your comparison is weak, and your original point didn't make sense. You made it sound like the $50 pays for the interview, which is not true. Most likely the money goes the administrative costs.
 
mathnerd88 said:
That's not a valid statement. Not everyone gets to go to an interview. I would more likely say that the money is for the administrative costs, but honestly, they are already paid by salary, and it won't cost the school extra for this.

For example, why do some schools charge $2000+ nonrefundable deposit for a seat, while others only charge $100 refundable deposit? Really, they're just making money off of you.
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No DO school charges a $100 deposit. There is no reason for someone to hold a ton of DO acceptances, as it won't result in any financial aid package but will only confuse schools as to who is matriculating or not.
 
allantois said:
No DO school charges a $100 deposit. There is no reason for someone to hold a ton of DO acceptances, as it won't result in any financial aid package but will only confuse schools as to who is matriculating or not.
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Do you know how the process works? You can only accept one school at a time. You can decide to withdraw and accept another school. You are not allowed to accept and pay deposits to more than one school at a period of time.

What I have a problem with is when a school starts purposely gouging their nonrefundable deposits to purposely keep accepted applicants from going to another school. Allopathic schools offer refundable deposits and usually are only $100-200. Having such a high non-refundable deposit forces an applicant to be locked to that school even if he/she gets accepted elsewhere and cannot pay. The school hopes for that applicant to withdraw because they get to keep $1500! The more withdrawals a school gets, the more money they make. They can always accept more people off the waitlist. There are so many applicants they can choose from. Their financial analysts really have this business down to a T. (They've figured out how to maximize revenue.)
 
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The deposits just get deducted from your tuition costs later, it's not like you pay $2,000 for an opportunity. You pay $2,000 to guarantee yourself a spot and knock down some (admittedly, only a small amount) tuition cost. Two grand is a small price to pay compared to what you'll be paying later.

And I don't understand the salaried AdComms arguement...Aren't their salaries PAID FOR mostly by all the revenue coming in from the secondaries?
 
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx said:
The deposits just get deducted from your tuition costs later, it's not like you pay $2,000 for an opportunity. You pay $2,000 to guarantee yourself a spot and knock down some (admittedly, only a small amount) tuition cost. Two grand is a small price to pay compared to what you'll be paying later.

And I don't understand the salaried AdComms arguement...Aren't their salaries PAID FOR mostly by all the revenue coming in from the secondaries?
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They're part of the school staff...They aren't outside hires that they just contract for a couple of months.

You misunderstood my point. I'm talking about those who want to withdraw and attend another institution. Allopathic schools are much cheaper in deposits and they're also refundable. When a school is making a deposit over $1000 and non-refundable, it makes you wonder why they're doing so.

Everyone knows there's a lot of applicant movement when it comes to acceptances. Think of how many "waitlist" movements there are. Schools already accept more than 2 times their class size, and they only allow 14 days to pay that seat or lose your acceptance.
 
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mathnerd88 said:
They're part of the school staff...They aren't outside hires that they just contract for a couple of months.

You misunderstood my point. I'm talking about those who want to withdraw and attend another institution. Allopathic schools are much cheaper in deposits and they're also refundable. When a school is making a deposit over $1000 and non-refundable, it makes you wonder why they're doing so.

Everyone knows there's a lot of applicant movement when it comes to acceptances. Think of how many "waitlist" movements there are. Schools already accept more than 2 times their class size, and they only allow 14 days to pay that seat or lose your acceptance.

You can even think of it this way- if a school was really desirable and top of the totem pole, there will be very little movement in their lists. They don't need to charge such high deposits because they know students who are accepted are most likely not going to give up their acceptance. For schools with lots of risk of applicants withdrawing acceptances, it is in their best interest to charge high deposits to keep people from leaving.
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MD schools rely on tuition and fees for less than 10% of their budget revenues. Hence, they don't really depend on high deposits and other fees unlike DO schools which are almost exclusively operated on students' tuition and whatever other fees they can collect. Where do you suggest they bring funds from to pay their faculty?

https://www.aamc.org/download/381714/data/fy2013_medical_school_financial_tables.pdf
 
allantois said:
MD schools rely on tuition and fees for less than 10% of their budget revenues. Hence, they don't really depend on high deposits and other fees unlike DO schools which are almost exclusively operated on students' tuition and whatever other fees they can collect. Where do you suggest they bring funds from to pay their faculty?

https://www.aamc.org/download/381714/data/fy2013_medical_school_financial_tables.pdf
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It looks like the reason is because MD schools have their own teaching hospitals, correct?
 
allantois said:
I'm not entirely sure. It looks like they could totally bring the tuition down to zero and still be able to operate. What a rip-off!
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But it still doesn't matter when it comes to deposits for a school. They're always going to have a full class so money from tuition is going to be the same for them. The school gets extra income when a student decides to withdraw from an acceptance and forfeiting their deposit. The school can easily replace a withdrawn applicant with someone from the waitlist. They won't lose money for doing so.

Rowan SOM only charges $195 for the deposit, which is way more affordable than some other schools.
 
mathnerd88 said:
But it still doesn't matter when it comes to deposits for a school. They're always going to have a full class so money from tuition is going to be the same for them. The school gets extra income when a student decides to withdraw from an acceptance and forfeiting their deposit. The school can easily replace a withdrawn applicant with someone from the waitlist. They won't lose money for doing so.

Rowan SOM only charges $195 for the deposit, which is way more affordable than some other schools.
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I'm not arguing that the policies that are in place are meant to bring additional revenues to the schools. Perhaps the difference is such that it enables schools to reduce their tuition rates a bit for incoming students as they have that extra source of funds from the application process. Still, I don't think it is that tragic for applicants: you really should not need to waste more than one tuition deposit that you may, if you wish, put for the school that accepts you first and then only withdraw if you are accepted to your top choice.
 
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allantois said:
I'm not arguing that the policies that are in place are meant to bring additional revenues to the schools. Perhaps the difference is such that it enables schools to reduce their tuition rates a bit for incoming students as they have that extra source of funds from the application process. Still, I don't think it is that tragic for applicants: you really should not need to waste more than one tuition deposit that you may, if you wish, to put a deposit for the first school that accepts you and then only withdraw if you are accepted to your top choice.
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Let's say you get accepted to a school and it requires a $2000 deposit. You needed to respond within a month and there was no way to tell if another school could accept you by then. The risk is high, so you pay that deposit. Then, a couple of weeks after wards, you get into a better school that also accepts you and you again, pay a high deposit and lose the $2000. Then, another couple of weeks, your number 2 accepts you and then again you forfeit your deposits. You only have 14 days to decide to take the acceptance and pay that deposit.

Then, you realize that your top choice school just accepted you off the waitlist a month before classes start. Do you see where I'm getting at? It sucks, because none of these schools are that forgiving. In fact, it is in the school's best interest to accept you earlier in hopes of you changing schools later.
 
mathnerd88 said:
Let's say you get accepted to a school and it requires a $2000 deposit. You needed to respond within a month and there was no way to tell if another school could accept you by then. The risk is high, so you pay that deposit. Then, a couple of weeks after wards, you get into a better school that also accepts you and you again, pay a high deposit and lose the $2000. Then, another couple of weeks, your number 2 accepts you and then again you forfeit your deposits. You only have 14 days to decide to take the acceptance and pay that deposit.

Then, you realize that your top choice school just accepted you off the waitlist a month before classes start. Do you see where I'm getting at? It sucks, because none of these schools are that forgiving. In fact, it is in the school's best interest to accept you earlier in hopes of you changing schools later.
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I see where you are going with it. If in fact everyone was free to go through this accept-withdraw cycle enabled by small deposits, I see how it could confuse the crap out of schools as to who is really going to be matriculating and who is not, as there would be too much movement on and off acceptance lists.
 
I'm pretty certain that if you're a middling applicant, they're mainly after le money. It's saddening.
 
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