Why is AMCAS so greedy?

[rpm]

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After sending out a majority of my secondaries, I'm finally starting to feel the hit financially. And I'm not even done with all of my secondaries and will still have to pay money for going to interviews.

AMCAS-causing students to go broke before they even get into med school.

 

[MacGyver]

They're greedy because they can be. They have a monopoly and take advantage of it.

And dont let the AMCAS apologists come on here and convince you that it really costs that much money to put applications together. Thats a load of BS. 95% of it is automated by computers and requires very little manual labor to work.

AMCAS uses the money generated by these fees to run their entire operation and operate on a year-round basis when in reality AMCAS only needs to operate about 9 months out of hte year. They are using your fees to subsidize aspects of their operation that have NOTHING to do with applying to med school.

Its the same deal with the Step I and Step II CK BS. It doesnt cost anywhere NEAR that amount of money to administer/grade the tests. They use it as a revenue generating scheme becuase they hold a monopoly.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Why is AMCAS so greedy?

Well, first this is gonna cost some money, but why so much? 38k applicants/year applying (how accurate is this?) to an average of 10 schools is $430/applicant. So AMCAS rakes in around $16 million/year. Obviously even after software development, physical location costs, servers, support staff, temp workers to verify grades, and everything else, its probably under this figure.

However, I think the main reason why AMCAS is so expensive is that the AAMC wants to discourage 'shotgun' applicants who would otherwise apply to all allopathic schools.

Its easy to bitch about AMCAS and other costs associated with applying to medical school, but since there are more applicants than slots, its the applicants that are put into an inferior position.

 

[deleted106503]

I believe the secondary fees are set by the schools themselves. I don't think FSU even charges for a secondary (I could be wrong). It does take them some time to review your primary application, secondary essays, and make a file for you I suppose. I'm not entirely sure why each primary costs $30. Do the schools get the $30 primary or AMCAS?

 

[sentry]

I believe the secondary fees are set by the schools themselves. I don't think FSU even charges for a secondary (I could be wrong). It does take them some time to review your primary application, secondary essays, and make a file for you I suppose. I'm not entirely sure why each primary costs $30. Do the schools get the $30 primary or AMCAS?

AMCAS gets the $30 bucks. Like the previous posters said, its an issue of supply and demand. There are way more applicants than there are positions, so they have to regulate the applications in some manner (or every school would get 20,000 apps for 150 spots). The two logical choices are caps on the number of applications (say you can only send out 10 primaries) or charge a nominal fee to create an economic incentive to decide for yourself which schools you are interested in BEFORE you apply. From AMCAS's perspective, this is an easy choice ($0 or several million).

 

[63768]

AMCAS sucks. i actually had to ask my parents for money for the first time since i was 17. quite the humbling experience.

 

[MacGyver]

AMCAS gets the $30 bucks. Like the previous posters said, its an issue of supply and demand. There are way more applicants than there are positions, so they have to regulate the applications in some manner (or every school would get 20,000 apps for 150 spots). The two logical choices are caps on the number of applications (say you can only send out 10 primaries) or charge a nominal fee to create an economic incentive to decide for yourself which schools you are interested in BEFORE you apply. From AMCAS's perspective, this is an easy choice ($0 or several million).

You are missing the boat on this. Schools would absolutely LOVE it if 20,000 peole applied to their program. Do you have any idea how much revenue that would generate on a $50 application fee?

Hell they would absolutely adore that set up. Use a computer program to screen out 15,000 of hte applicants, and then dedicate the only real manpower they need on evaluating the remaining 5,000 apps.

The reason for AMCAS exhorbitant fees has nothing to do with the logic you cited. Its all about AMCAS maximizing revenue streams for themselves as well as their member institutions.

 

[FutureDr2011]

You are missing the boat on this. Schools would absolutely LOVE it if 20,000 peole applied to their program. Do you have any idea how much revenue that would generate on a $50 application fee?

Hell they would absolutely adore that set up. Use a computer program to screen out 15,000 of hte applicants, and then dedicate the only real manpower they need on evaluating the remaining 5,000 apps.

The reason for AMCAS exhorbitant fees has nothing to do with the logic you cited. Its all about AMCAS maximizing revenue streams for themselves as well as their member institutions.

I agree. And as long as premed students who go through the system continue to be passive about it--the system is going to stay the way it is, and prob. get worse even in the next few years. I honestly think the problem stems problem a lack of advocacy on our part...

Like the above poster said, schools would love more applications...consider how they send recruitment emails to students that are often rejected pre/post secondary...and who prob. had no shot going into the process.

The premed prereqs and what we have to go through to get ready to apply is enough to keep a lot of people out just the way it is...you don't necessarily need to raise application fees.

 

[Chuckwalla]

It is like college texbooks, they rip you off because they have a monopoly on it. Hence why people value a free market so much.

 

[Xypathos]

Welcome to Capitalism and America --- not saying there's anything wrong with it all, but if you have such a problem with AMCAS, go setup your own system, do a better job, and charge what you think is deserved. You can afterall, it's America --- won't be easy, but do something constructive rather than complain.

 

[pharmacytech]

i'm saving as much money as i can from federal loans (the excess) for medical school application. i didn't start using them till now (junior status) and i'll be doing two quarters post bac so there is more to save.

by the time i apply i will be a little over 24...so i just don't want to depend completely on my parents. what also sucks is that amcas considers your parents income if you want to apply for $$ help in the application process even if you already that old! but i don't this applies to DO schools, its worth seeing if you can get three DO primary applications for three, more money to save for f$#%n greedy amcas.