<p>Hello I was recently admitted to Rice University and I intend to be pre-med and major in cognitive sciences. I do not come from an affluent back ground by a long shot so I was wondering how do people finance flying all over the country to do the interviews and apply for medical school? Are there loans that you can get or should I start saving now? For those who have been admitted to medical school or been admitted into residency programs, how much did everything cost you? I was thinking about $5,000 but that might be too much. When you interview, did you stay at a hotel? I'm curious because generally you apply to 12-16 schools and each one is like $50-$100 for an app and then if you got 4 interviews that could be 4 short notice plane tickets that can get pretty pricey. So how is it all done?</p>
<p>I think I spent around $5000. I interviewed at over 10 schools though.</p>
<p>wow how many did you apply to and how many offers did you get?
It also brings me to another question, could I get a loan for that amount but where I wouldnt have to pay until after medical school graduation or is that only for school loans? I have no idea where I could come up with that kind of money and I'm certain it will be struggle enough to get through college.</p>
<p>I suggest working and saving as much as you can during college. There are some very generous summer internships that'll cover housing expenses while providing you will with a nice stipend that will allow you to save a couple of thousand each summer. If you still don't have enough, obviously you'll either have to be choosy in where you apply and where you interview or take out private loans to cover the expenses.</p>
<p>I don't know how poor you are but there is also a fee asistance program from the AAMC that will allow you to apply to a certain number of schools for free (they don't cover the interview costs but they will cover the application fees). Not sure what the income cutoff for that is.</p>
<p>Med schools are also very flexible in allowing you to reschedule your interviews to minimize costs. For example, I scheduled my Penn, Columbia, and NYU interviews into one week. So, I took one week off work, hopped on a bus from Washington DC to NYC (for Columbia and NYU, stayed at a hotel one night and at a friend's place one night) and then hopped on another bus from NYC to Philly and then a bus from Philly to DC so my travel costs were only around $80 combined. I chose to stay at hotels over student hosts most of the time (my parents were paying ;)) but obviously if you're strapped for cash, that's another great way to save money. Most med schools have some sort of student hosting program although half the time student hosts are unavailable because they have some sort of test coming up. I could never get anyone to host me during test week.</p>
<p>wow you must have really been a stellar student to get interviews from those places (Penn, Columbia).</p>
<p>But thanks for the advice and information. I'm sure it's going to help. I'm sure that I'll find someone who could help me especially if I'm THAT close to where I'm getting interviews.</p>
<p>The cost of interviews for fourth year medical students is highly dependent on which specialty they are entering. As a pediatric applicant, I had offers for free hotel rooms at 10 of 12 interviews that I went on (and some were ridiculously nice hotels...). Plus, all the programs had a dinner with the residents the night before (or in one instance the night of) the interview which was paid for by the program (often at one of nicest restaurants in town - with appetizers and desserts, and occasionally alcohol). A couple of programs even reimburse travel costs. Paying for travel is even more widespread in fields like family medicine.</p>
<p>So all things considered, I mainly only had to pay for airfare, rental cars/cabs, and meals at the airport. Not cheap for sure, but definitely saved me a lot of money by not having to pay for the majority of meals or hotel rooms.</p>
<p>Compare my experience to that of my colleagues going into ENT or Ortho and it's VERY different. In place of free hotel rooms, applicants are lucky to get discounted hotel rooms. Many programs do not have a dinner the night before to meet the residents. The attitude that the applicants are lucky to get an interview and don't need to be recruited results in a very different set of experiences. And when you consider how many spots per year the average ENT program has compared to the average peds program, and it seems like the surgery programs could easily afford to pay for some of the perks (I interviewed at some peds programs that take >30 interns a year, whereas a HUGE ENT program might take 5).</p>
<p>So how much residency interviews cost a particular person is really dependent on what field you're entering. Further more, because geography tends to be one of the biggest influences on where people apply/interview, some applicants may be even to save even more money simply by driving their own car rather than flying. Certainly, someone applying to programs in NYC, Boston and Philadelphia can have a much different travel itinerary than someone who is applying to programs in Portland OR, Salt Lake City UT, Houston TX, and Memphis TN.</p>
<p>Now all that said, you can (and many fourth years do) take out extra "residency and relocation loans" from private lenders. These can range up to $18000, and be used for a variety of different things including Step 2 board review, travel for residency interviews, or for moving oneself to a new location. I know that some lenders require proof that some of the money was used for these things, but I was able to just get the money from the lender that is already handling my federal loans and didn't have to do anything like that. Technically I'm using most of my money to do a rotation in a foreign country.</p>
<p>I am a high school student that jus got an interview from a BS/MD program and I have to fly to the medical school. I come from a low-income background so I was wondring if any of u can give me some advice…? Should I call the med school program commitee and ask if they can help financially with my interview costs or would that lower my chanes at gettig in?</p>
<p>bumppppppppp please someone answer my questoin.</p>
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<p>Seems unlikely that a school would give you money for travel costs unless they for some reason have a fund set-up for this kind of thing (unlikely imo). It may be something you just have to find a way to pay for (loan, credit card, etc.). As far as lodging though, you may be able to ask the school about student hosts or see if any hotels in the area will give you a comp room (or reduced rate by saying you are on business with XX school). Of course, I don’t think it would hurt to ask about it, because I don’t think it will lower your chances.</p>
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<p>To the OP, I know SDN does a running list of student hosts. So, that can alleviate some costs for certain schools. Should there not be a student host for a particular school, you can always look into couchsurfing.com and stay with a host within the city. Of course, this all depends with how comfortable you are staying with strangers.</p>