<p>How much does it end up costing by the time you are finished trying to get into med school? Please think about all of your expenses: MCAT prep class, MCAT tests, applications, sending scores and transcripts, travel expense for interviews (airfare, hotel, meals, cabs, parking), new clothes, shoes, hair styling, etc. for interviews, lost income for going to interviews, counseling and prescription medication for nervous breakdown (just kidding!), etc. Any input would be much appreciated!</p>
<p>$1500 + $90 + $130 + $30(25) + ~$75(25) + ~$300*11 + $300(Unreimbursed second look wknd).</p>
<p>$8000. A drop in the bucket compared to the actual cost of going to medical school.</p>
<p>Thanks, bluedevil mike. Do med. schools pay for the transportation to interview costs, or does the student?</p>
<p>The student.</p>
<p>Hmm...</p>
<p>$1400 for Kaplan (I think you and I took the class at different times, but it might have been the same)
$90 for MCAT (I don't think this has changed recently)
$130 basic AMCAS fee
$30*6 schools
$45 to School 1 secondary application fee
$95 to School 2 secondary application fee
$50 to School 3 secondary application fee
$75 to School 4 just to have them look at my primary app (rejected without secondary)
$0 to instate school secondary application fee
~$100 for miscellaneous - haircut, product, dry cleaning, gas to second interview (school 1 above)
~$50 spent at bars night after my first interview
$0 spent at bars night after receiving my first acceptance
$100 spent at bars celebrating acceptances of friends</p>
<p>All told about $2000 </p>
<p>but I applied to a lot fewer schools, only interviewed at two, one being my home state school, and the other being the College of Medicine affiliated with my alma mater. My home state school interview occurred over break, so I was at my parents' house for free, and I would have been there anyway, so I don't count the gas. The drive to my alma mater's COM is only about 45 minutes away, and a trip I make pretty frequently (some of my classmates even commute everyday). I didn't include my doctor's bill from breaking my lateral malleolus the night after my first interview, because I might have done that anyway. Nor did I count the missed wages the injury resulted in (due to a major mix-up I ended up eventually, weeks later, losing my job at the time).</p>
<p>It's not a cheap process.</p>
<p>Thanks for your responses. Do you know of any websites which might offer data on the average amount spent by med school applicants?</p>
<p>I don't about any such website. But to offer another perspective, I go to college in North Carolina but applied to all seven medical schools in my home state of Texas-each interview required an airline ticket, hotel, taxi etc-each interview cost about $500. I also applied to a few non-texas schools in Pennsylvania and Maryland-also requiring airfare etc..after I got some early acceptances, I stopped accepting the interview invitations, as it is financial suicide to go to any school outside of Texas if you are a Texas resident-the cost is 1/2 of any of the others.</p>
<p>I usually only paid airfare, as most of the schools I applied to had cities with good mass transportation systems -- Houston, Philadelphia, and Chicago being the exceptions. They allowed me to stay with student hosts, which was also helpful financially.</p>
<p>Even so, there's still airfare. And there's getting to your local airport in the first place -- again, in my case, I had a younger brother who could drive me for all kinds of absurd early-morning flights. (I bought him a very expensive present after the whole ordeal was over.)</p>
<p>hey I'd just like to add something, registering for the MCAT is $210...that's what I paid to register for my may 31st exam.</p>