The Cost of Applying to Medical School
May 30, 2018 - Abdi
When we think of the financial burden associated with becoming a physician, our thoughts often center on the student loan debt medical students incur during their studies. Unfortunately, even just applying to medical school is a costly process. We’ll give you an idea of what kind of costs to expect and how to avoid burning through more money than you need to!
As detailed in our overview of the application process, you will have to submit one primary application to all schools. The primary application costs $170 for the first school you apply to and $40 for each additional school. After submitting your primary applications, you will receive a secondary application from the majority of the schools you applied to (some institutions, such as the UCs, heavily screen before sending out secondary applications). The price of these secondary applications range from $40 – $200, with the average secondary application costing roughly $100.
For the 2019-2020 cycle, the average applicant applied to 17 schools. This number will vary depending on several factors such as your state of residence, your school list, and the competitiveness of your application. If we utilize the estimate of $100 for secondary applications, that means that submitting your primary and secondary applications to 16 schools would cost roughly $2,410.
While receiving an interview invitation is something to be incredibly proud of, in the context of assessing the cost of applying to medical school interviews exponentially increase your financial burden. You are required to purchase your own transportation to your interview. This can quickly add up if you are making cross country trips or have to purchase multiple flights. After paying for transportation to your interview, you have to also factor in the cost of housing during your stay as well. A flight from San Diego to New York, for instance, will probably cost you around $300-350. After factoring in housing and food, you could easily be looking at $500 for this one interview trip alone.
Depending on how many schools you apply to and how successful your application season is, these costs can quickly add up and cost you over $5,000!
Applying to 25 schools and receiving three interviews that require transportation and housing costs would already lead to expenses around this ballpark estimate. Apply to more schools or receive more interviews, and you can expect to be paying even more than this. So as you can see, you will definitely need to save up in order to apply to medical school!
5 WAYS TO MINIMIZE THE COST OF APPLYING
The AAMC’s Fee Assistance Program (FAP), which is open to applicants from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, can significantly reduce your application costs if you are eligible. FAP subsidizes the cost of submitting your primary application to 16 schools; you will only need to pay $39 for every school you apply to beyond your first 16 selections. Additionally, almost all medical schools will waive secondary costs if you are a FAP recipient. If you are a low income student, make sure to look into your eligibility…it could save you thousands!
Having a realistic school list can significantly reduce your costs while also increasing your chances of admittance. The MSAR, which lists the median MCAT and GPA along with other school specific information, is a great investment that will allow you to construct a list of schools for which you will be statistically competitive. While statistics aren’t everything, it’s probably not wise to spend $150 applying to a school that does not take any out-of-state students. The MSAR is a $28 investment and I strongly recommend it to all applicants.
Look at possible flight schedules and prices before booking an interview date. Usually, you’ll have some flexibility in deciding when you would like to interview (a few schools simply assign a date). If you are permitted to pick an interview date, looking at flight prices during that time period can sometimes save you a ton of money.
Coordinate your interviews so that you can knock more than one out on the same trip, if applicable! If you receive an interview to a school in New York, it doesn’t hurt to inform the other schools you applied to in New York that you will be in the area (make sure to contact admissions offices first to see if they are receptive to in-the-area requests). If it can save you the cost of another round trip flight to the opposite coast, that’s a huge win for your wallet!
Housing is expensive…request to stay with a student host if you can. Most schools will have some sort of system in place to allow interviewees to stay with a student host. If you don’t mind crashing on a couch for a night, I would highly recommend taking advantage of student hosts. Not only do you get to avoid the cost of housing, but you will also get the opportunity to interact with current students and ask them questions.
We hope this guide helped you develop a better understand of the costs associated with applying. Hopefully our tips can help you keep those costs as low as possible!