How Can You Pay For Med School Apps & INTERVIEWS?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>Son stayed with alum from his undergrad on all his overnights for interviews. Since they all had similar undergrad experiences he had a point of reference for their views of the interviewing school.</p>

<p>A flying tip he used extensively was he padded the time he needed to arrive and leave by many, many hours if not days. So if there was a weather delay he would still arive in time, this was especially helpful for the Nov-Jan interviews in the Northeast. </p>

<p>An added benefit to the extra time allowed for him to place himself on the “willing to be bumped if flight is overbooked list” and in exchange for the bump was another ticket (voucher) anywhere that airline flies. Did this several times.</p>

<p>So took a bump for his interview at Cornell, received a voucher. Scheduled his interview at Michigan on a Friday, interview at Harvard on the following Monday and then flew home. So flew to michigan, then to Boston, then home…all on the voucher. Michigan then reimbursed him for his flight…value of the voucher. Let him buy more tickets!</p>

<p>Ticket was originally purchased on Orbitz for cheap, few days before since Cornell doesn’t give much advanced notice for interviews. He combined his Cornell interview with Mt. Sinai interview and stayed with friends, again.</p>

<p>Dartmouth interview was done with residual money in family members Southwest accounts (flew in/out of Boston), ranging from $15-$20 per but added together cost him around $15 out of pocket. Did have to pay for Darthmouth coach but that was the only expense.</p>

<p>Other interviews he could drive to, so gas there and back.</p>

<p>Son did not pay for MCAT prep, just self-studied…bought 1 book to write in, the rest from the library and sitting at Barnes and Noble to use their more up to date versions. Really loud at home to study!</p>

<p>Son did apply to many schools and did qualify for FAP. But had to pay for the schools that exceeded the allowable amount. He saved his money from his previous work-study/scholarships for undergrad and then worked the summer after graduation for a doc and used those funds to pay for the rest.</p>

<p>Had he had to pay for all the airlines at full price it would have been more than he could afford, but as usual he figured a way to make it happen.</p>

<p>App season turned out well for him with some acceptances and will be starting med school in just a few weeks. He was looking to go OOS but our in-state made him feel “very-loved” with a full tuition scholie + laptop and some other goodies…maybe a MPH thrown in.</p>

<p>School is 30 minutes from from home…sooooo I am so VERY happy!!</p>

<p>Good luck with apps/interviews!</p>

<p>Kat</p>

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<p>Medical education costs somewhere in the range of 250-300k. I don’t understand people who aren’t willing to spend an extra 1-2k just so they can apply to all of the schools they want. Definitely don’t take out the 1-2k on a credit card but get a small loan from the folks or save up an extra grand or two or forgo a vacation or two. It’s chump change in the grand scheme of things but it affects where you’ll spend your next 4 years.</p>

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<p>katwkittens, congratulations on your son’s success. He sounds like a very bright and intelligent young man. I’m sort of jealous that he has enough patience and flexibility to plan a few days worth of delays if necessary.</p>

<p>On the contrary, I am not flexible when it comes to planning, and any discrepancies between my plan and what actually pans out gets me frustrated.</p>

<p>I am not applying yet, but I am planning on applying to schools that are less than 4-5 hours drive away from my house. Most of the schools I plan to apply to meet that criteria, so it looks like there will be no expensive flights for me. However, gas is not cheap.</p>

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<p>^^Yeah I wouldnt have a problem with 1k-2k, but 6k is what I am looking at. I don’t have money to go on trips in the first place lol so I can’t save up from there.
^I’m in the same boat. I have programs, many programs that I run and I work so my schedule will most likely not be flexible enough to push my luck in receiving vouchers.</p>

<p>@Kat…if the U of MN offers me a full ride and a laptop, than I would cry, jump in joy, and do a lot of other embarrassing stuff to display my enjoyment lol</p>

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<p>Our family definitely would have a problem with 1k - 2k. There is no Merit awards in our case, we will pay full price. I am not willing to let my D. to have loans, I have a thing against loans, just my personal preferences. Of course, everybody is in different financial situation and some have unlimited resources. D. has met one girl who has applied to 125 Med. Schools (I am not sure why she has left few out). Talking about unlimited resources here! I was happy with the choice of 8 schools all close by. </p>

<p>By no means restrict yourself too much, but make sure that you can afford what you are buying.</p>

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<p>@katwkittens… what is a Dartmouth coach? I cant say that I am familiar with this… Thank you!</p>

<p>@chemfreak… how does one find out about FAP… I would love information on how to find our about this! and what is AMCAS? Thanks!</p>

<p>My daughter is well on her way to applying to medschool… she is still in high school but this has been a dream of hers for as long as I can remember…</p>

<p>We are from CT… and have Yale and UCONN to apply to. I am not sure if there are other medschools here but I am sure she will apply to schools in MA, NY, RI, NJ as well…</p>

<p>My question is… How many schools do students generally apply to? how is that decided?<br>
Also, From what I understand, all med schools are basicially created equal from what I have read here ON CC… is this true? The reasoning is that all schools are required to teach the same material d/t certain standards! So my next question is, how does one decide on WHERE to decide? is it cost? a location close to home? acceptance rates? </p>

<p>I spoke to an adcom @ a school in Boston… and she said that last year that they had almost 8,000 apps for 167 slots… it seems like an uphill battle for those who want to become a DR… I wish all of you well!</p>

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<p>^^^
AMCAS is the central organization that all med school applicants must use to apply to allopathic medical schools.</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/amcas/[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/amcas/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>AACOM is the equivalent for osteopathic schools</p>

<p>[AACOM</a> Home](<a href=“http://www.aacom.org/Pages/default.aspx]AACOM”>http://www.aacom.org/Pages/default.aspx)</p>

<p>FAP is Fee Assistance Program sponsored by AMCAS for low income med school applicants. It is a waiver that allows a low income applicant to apply up to 14 schools.</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/amcas/faqs/146560/fap_questions_landing_page.html[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/amcas/faqs/146560/fap_questions_landing_page.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The number of schools a student applies to is a highly individual choice, but I think the recommended number is around 15.</p>

<p>Again, the decision of where to attend medical school is highly personal decision. Some choose a school because they want to go into a particular type of medicine (academic medicine as opposed to clinical practice) or because a school is close to home or because one school offers a better financial deal than another. (NOTE: there is very little FA for med school except for loans. Merit aid is rare except for truly exceptional students.) Most med school applicants don’t have the luxury of choice–they go wherever they get accepted. The competition for a seat at any US medical school is boggling.</p>

<p>Part of the successful application process to is 1) have the requisite GPA, test scores, LORs, experiences, research credentials etc and 2) craft a well selected list of schools to apply to. Crafting an appropriate list takes time and thought and is dependent upon the applicants GPA, MCAT score and state of residence.</p>

<p>There are many public (state) med schools which strongly restrict OOS acceptances and some that won’t consider OOS applicants altogether. Before you start making a list of schools in other states, you need to check their admission rate/eligibility for OOS students. Even some private medical schools show a preference for in-state students.</p>

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<p>@WOWM… thank you for that response! Its funny b/c UCONN states that on their website… that they favor students that are from CT… something to do with taxpayers or something… wow loans for 300K of tuitioin? So how does one become a stellar applicant to get a full ride/avoid all those loans? Does one have to walk on water? produce loaves of bread + fish? It seems virtually impossible to pull this one off… I also heard a number of over 18,000 students applying to 100+ schools…</p>

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<p>If you are a glutton for data, try looking at the various statistics published by AMCAS regarding applicants and matriculants to get some ideas of the quantity and quality of applicants and acceptees.</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Yeppers, $250-300K in loans is not uncommon. Sobering–and one of the many reasons why we have a national shortage of primary care docs. </p>

<p>In preparation for my older D to start med school next month, I met with a financial planner, a broker, my lawyer and my accountant --they ALL had horror stories about clients who are well into their 40’s, 50’s and 60’s who are still paying off medical school loans. I’m grateful that D1 is likely to get out of med school with under $70K in debt. </p>

<p>The reason why UCONN states a preference for in-state candidates is the state subsidized the cost of a medical education via its tax dollars. (The COA difference between a state med school and a private med school can be as much as $40,000+/year.)</p>

<p>Last year (2010) there were 580,304 applications submitted by 42,735 applicants for just over 18,000 MS1 slots.</p>

<p>Merit winners? See kristin comments about her fellow applicants in post #4. </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1156880-hook-required.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1156880-hook-required.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>EDIT–I forgot to mention that some schools just don’t have the finances/funding to be able to offer much merit. At our state med school, the highest merit award is around $5000. Not that much compared to the $43,000/year COA but better than a poke in the eye…</p>

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<p>^Another route is to get free UG education which is much easier to get, more Merit awards are available for UG’s. Then after saving all these $$, pay for Med. School w/o loans or better yet, yes get Merit awards for Med. School also. My D. got very small amount from one of her Med. Schools which was not enough to make her go there. She is going to the most expansive Med. School on her list after full tuition Merit schlarships at UG. We just pray that we have our jobs tomorrow.</p>

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<p>[Dartmouth</a> Coach: Connecting Upper Valley to Boston South Station, Logan Airport, and New York City](<a href=“http://www.dartmouthcoach.com/]Dartmouth”>http://www.dartmouthcoach.com/)</p>

<p>google is your friend.</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>If DS could get out of med school under $150K in debt (with some assistance from us), I would be very happy.</p>

<p>For a state medical school, it is our experience that they give a limited amount of scholarship unless you are a heavily-recruited high stats URM (who could get twice as much. Or, a bigger prize may be for a few super-stars – most of them, ironically, likely OOS applicants?) The amount offered by the state medical school is likely 5K-10K at most each year for most students (and likely lower in MS2-MS4.)</p>

<p>For a private medical school, the free money offered could be higher, but with a much higher “sticker price.” The actual out-of-pocket expenses could be about the same if you are very lucky and this kind of nice deal is likely for a very limited number of medical schools only. Priviate ones tend to be higher in their COA in general.</p>

<p>If DS attended the state school, he would get $7000 in MS1 (less in other years.)</p>

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<p>@bluebayou… thank you for the clarification!! Thats what I thought you meant!! but I kind of thought you meant an actual coach to assist with MS admissions… lol Thanks again…</p>

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<p>Most students apply to around 12-16 med schools. My point was that, if you are a weaker applicant or you’re from California or whatever, spend the extra 1k-2k and apply to a few more schools. In the end, it’s chump change. It’s better than having to reapply or going to a school you don’t want to go to just because you wanted to save a few dollars.</p>

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<p>Headed to state school for med school soon. This has been my experience with scholarships and financial aid…but for my school, the bigger prizes were all awarded to IS kids (according to financial aid director).</p>

<p>Something worth asking when you are researching financial aid is what percentage of students receive scholarships, and of those recipients, the breakdown of merit vs need. The high figures of financial aid (ie, “92% of our students receive financial aid to help offset the cost of medical school” or whatever) typically include students who are receiving loans too. At my school, for example, only about 30% receive scholarships, and less than half of those scholarships are merit-based (as in, not need based). The rest who have financial aid have loans. And I have no idea what the remaining 8% (or whatever) do.</p>

<p>After taking into account financial assistance from my parents and a scholarship, I’m looking at around $120k-$130k in debt (like others have mentioned, less in M1 and M2, more in M3 and M4).</p>

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<p>If you are a strong applicant should you still apply to so much schools? I mean 3.8+ GPA high MCAT ( I can predict a high MCAT because I ALWAYS do very well on standardized test (test in general), I will study very hard for it and I get science pretty well) and good ECs (start mentoring program for youth of coloring in the intercity, run 7 other programs such as S.T.E.M, tutoring at a rec center etc. for 4-H at the University of Minnesota, shadowing and other clinical exp. at Noran neurology clinic, Childrens, and HCMC in the ED, work in bio lab since UG start, research projects in psychology, biochem and biology (predicted because they are req. for honors), volunteer in Project SUCCESS which is a youth-dev program) and a URM (black male)</p>

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<p>RE: Kristin’s numbers, when they say a percentage of students receive scholarships it also may be $1-3k on a $40-50k COA, so there may be a scholarship, but it may not make a big difference in the ending loan amount. Not that I would pooh pooh a $1k scholarship at all, just don’t assume most places offer full tuition.</p>

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<p>

Fully agreed. During the second-look at a public medical school, financial aid told MS0 to expect less aid in MS2-4, even though the scholarships for MS1 are in the order of 5k - 7k only. The only exception may be the scholarships for URMs, who often get more and also get it at the same time they receive the acceptance. Many schools really roll the carpet for them, even when they have lower stats. (e.g., a 3.8/32 URM from a third-tier school could beat a 3.8/37 non-URM from a first-tier school easily. Heck, last year a top-20 medical school even accepted a student with 26 MCAT as the medical school has a “contract/agreement” with the state government which has a special program for some highly sought-after URMs near the border of Texas state.)</p>

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<p>Dwalker,
3.8+ is not that unsusual. There are many 4.0. Get high MCAT. You can estimate your MCAT (but this is estimation only that came to be 100% true for my D. would not apply to every applicant). I heard that MCAT is about 2 points below your best practice MCAT score and within 2 point of your ACT. D’s MCAT was exactly 2 points below her best and most common practice score and exactly 2 points above her ACT. D. did not get any significant Merit awars, a bit at one of the state schools that was not enough to make her go there, although she loved it, but she loved other places better. D’s GPA was 3.98 (she had 3 A-). She had many significant EC’s, both medical and non-medical, with result of getting several awards/recognitions for them, but frankly, I do not think that they had as much influence as others might believe. She loved all of them though, so her excitement definitely came thru during interviews, she also enjoyed interviews, always happy to meet new people at new places. Best wishes, you deserve the best, do not think too hard about cost. BTW, are you aware of some “free” schools, like Cleveland Clinic and Mayo? Cost is changing from year to year, but they are worthwhile to check out.</p>

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<p>@miamidpd…I know, but norcalguy said if youre a weaker applicant you should spend extra to apply to more schools. I was wondering since I am not a weaker applicant if I should apply to less to save money.
Free schools??, elaborate please please please. Do you mean in terms of applying or tuition?</p>

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