<p>I understand that one should apply to at least 10 schools and cut out some to lower cost. Well, there are only two med schools in my state so I believe that I will have to go out of state to most of interviews if I get any. The schools I am interested in are located in Cal, Massachusetts, NY, and Maryland. Just in prep of the possibility of getting some types of interviews, how in the world do people pay to travel across America? It cost $900 to fly from here to and from NY alone (I live in Minnesota). The apps cost and secondary cost are going to pile up to around $2000+ dollars. If I attend 4 out of state interviews, I am looking at around $4000 in cost. Thats a total of ~$6000 just to get into med school!Then you have the MCAT prep... How the heck does anyone pay for all of this?</p>
<p>Applying and interviewing is expensive. No way round that. And there are no loans/grants available to help defray the cost.</p>
<p>You need to start saving NOW. Open a bank account and earmark it for the med school application process. Get a part time job during the school year, work during the summer, ask your relatives for cash instead gifts for holidays–put it all away and don’t touch it. Consider placing it in a savings certificate. (Slightly higher interest rate and the penalty will discourage you from even thinking about withdrawing the fund early.)</p>
<p>Both Ds did/are doing this. </p>
<p>When you have interviews, ask if you can schedule several that may be close to each other geographically during the same week to save on travel costs.</p>
<p>There are other costs to consider too.</p>
<p>Over $1000 for a prep class. You’ll need an nice, professional looking interview suit and dress shoes. (When it’s time, ask around some places will give you a discount. D1 got a 10% off her suit at Banana Republic. Other people have reported getting discounts at other stores too.) And don’t forget that your plane ticket is only the beginning of your travel expenses–you’ll also be paying for meals and lodging.</p>
<p>BTW, I understand your pain. We only have 1 state med school and while we live near a decent sized airport, it isn’t a hub and flying anywhere from here is $500 and up. (And the next nearest major airport is an 8 hour drive away–so no alternative airports to fly out.)</p>
<p>Just to let you know the fee assistance program exists for primaries and secondaries at least (for AMCAS). You can apply to 14 schools for free, almost all secondaries are free. You can take your mcat for 85 too. Interviews of course, you’re on your own.</p>
<p>^^this process will be hard! Thanks for the tips.I just let everybody know that all I want from now on is money! Lol
^yeah I looked into that and I believe I will be eligible. Thats a big relieve. I am going to save up for all the interviews this summer. Hopefully $5000 will be enough. At least I get to go on trips!! Never went pass minnesota or wisconsin so out will be an experience</p>
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<p>This is great advice. If you get your application off early (i.e. before the first or second week of July), you will be in the first batch of applications to be processed. Once you start getting interview invites, see if there are schools near those that you have interviews at where you are still waiting on an interview invite.
There’s nothing wrong with calling those schools up and saying that you’ll be in the area and would like to save on travel costs, so would they be willing to interview you at the same time.</p>
<p>Yeah I qualified for the fee assistance program. It was some paperwork but it only took a week and a half to be approved and saved me a good 2k at least.</p>
<p>I didn’t think I’d qualify for the FAP so I didn’t even bother applying. I took a Kaplan class, the MCAT, applied to 13 schools, and went on 3 interviews in Chicago, North Carolina, and Minnesota (4th interview was at my undergrad). After all was said and done, I spent around $5000. </p>
<p>And to think, that’s barely a drop in the bucket when it comes to the total cost of med school.</p>
<p>Gulp.</p>
<p>Y’all really don’t want to know what my kid spent. (21 apps. 13 interviews. Yeah, well. We ain’t the sharpest tools in the shed.) All of her saved money + all she could earn + a whole lot of mine. That being said, she went to a bunch of interviews and never, not once, did she stay with a student. Says it would have stressed her out too much. </p>
<p>Try to get over it. lol. </p>
<p>Travel arrrangements truly sucked. Many times she was arriving after midnight (Dartmouth anyone?). Missed lots of class. (Dartmouth anyone? You just can’t get there from Memphis.) Plan. Plan. Plan.</p>
<p>whatever you do, dont use your credit card if you dont have the means to pay for it</p>
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DS got that one. But it was not a time-consuming/expensive trip for him, and I think he left before noon and arrived at the destination before dusk! The only glitch was he did not arrange a taxi to pick him up beforehand. But another traveler on the same train let him share the taxi and cost. (Hmm…Is it safe to do so?)</p>
<p>He went to 8 interviews. He skipped many interviews toward the mid/end of the application cycle.</p>
<p>I am SO happy for anywhere daughter can get to in a zipcar. Would include Dartmouth, if she were fortunate to get an invite. Here’s to a zipcar, the Peter Pan bus and Amtrak.</p>
<p>^^^Your daughter is fortunate to attend a school in the Northeast. Where D1 went to school is a long way from everywhere. And since D2 is going to apply after graduation, she’ll be in the same situation. Nearby local airport, but 8 hours by car to the next nearest.</p>
<p>My D. has limited her Med. School list to 4 hrs driving from home range. She went to 5 interviews (2 were in the same city though), got accepted to 4 out of 8. However, this was her personal preference and the most important criteria, despite pre-med advisor telling her to apply to Harvard and such. We are paying for all her expenses, including Med. School (first year so far). However, we appreciated her free tuition UG that also enabled her to apply only to 8 schools with one free application and no interview acceptance (bs/md). She has planned it all in HS. Her Med. School will be within 2 hours driving from home. Everybody situation is different. Have to make decisions based on personal and family situation, there is no general rule. Some have unlimited resourses, we cannot rely on advice from people in different situation.</p>
<p>Oh, yes, wanted to add, that my D. has always stayed with Med. Students for interview, it was her most important part of learning closer what kind of people are at each school. She even stayed with the same person on one of her Second Looks. She actually regretted staying with her best HS friend (pre-med) at one of them, she said that she missed a chance to learn more. However, that is where she is going anyway.</p>
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<p>Speak for yourself, my good man. Your D is brilliant…you on the other hand. :D</p>
<p>OP: apply to schools closer to home to reduce travel expense. Why California? Only 'SC and Stanford (and Loma Linda) are private. Most UC’s give preference to instaters. On top of that, they are expensive.</p>
<p>^ stanford is the only school on ca I’m applying to. I am applying instate, but I dont want to go to the uofm and mayo acceptance rate is outragesly low so I have to apply to other schools I like, columbia, howard, harvard, jhu etc. The only ones I can drive to its u ofchicago and michigan.</p>
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<p>That won’t even get us to the state line in most cases… Spaces are just bigger in the West.</p>
<p>columbia, howard, harvard, jhu etc. The only ones I can drive to its u ofchicago and michigan.</p>
<p>Most of those schools, DW, are pretty intensely competitive, be sure to apply broadly to cover your bases.</p>
<p>^ Yeah I know, I have a list of 24 schools that I will cut down to 16-18 to apply. I was just naming the most popular from the furthest states. Others are u of cal,georgetown, u of miami and florida (heard weather was nice lol), emory, mercer,morehouse, northwestern, indiana (i will drive there), iowa (here too), albert einstein, cornell, duke…nearly all I would have to fly. I could make one big big trip to NY if I get invites from columbia, einstein, and cornell. The U ofM and Mayo are the only med schools in minnesota and they are competitive so it will be interesting to see how that plays out.</p>
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<p>Warining about “u ofchicago and michigan.” My D. applied to 8 schools total and got 2 pre-interview rejections. Guess which ones, Yes, exactly. Of course, you might have higher stats or some other stuff that D. did not have.
If you can drive to these 2 schools, you can drive to most that D. has chosen to apply. We live 1 hr. from U of Mich. D’s acceptance rate was high by my standards. She has applied to wide range though. 8 schools with 7 applications fees, all in driving range and staying with Med. students (additional education about what kind of people going to this specific school) made D’s application process rather cheap and very successful. As a bonus educational experience - dealing with AAA when her battery went dead in Columbus, driving in snowy conditions to Chicago and beating major storm literally by few hours, waiting in a car for her host who did not even responded to D’s phone calls for couple hours in a dark, in unfamiliar city - Pittsburg. Needless to say, D. withdrew from U of Pitt. after that, did not care about place and people there. All these adventures were worthwhile and very educational. We discussed interviews tas a very secondary thing, there were many other more exciting and adventurous events during D’s trips, that we will remeber for awhile.</p>