Why Is There A Charge For Taking The Casper Test?

[CC36]

I'm a little confused as to why we are charged an additional fee to take the casper test after already paying an application fee to the University of Ottawa. Why is this so?

[rmorelan]

short answer is they can charge you knowing that people will pay it and the addition of the test to their admission criteria added a new expense to Ottawa that was outside of their prior cost.

 

Not a fan of financial barriers to the admission process of any kind but not uncommon for schools to add these sorts of things.

[Fresh fry]

we charge the families of dying patients up to $20 a day to park so that they can see their loved ones in their final hour. I promise you this is only the beginning. They charge you to take tests in med school through residency, from hundreds to thousands.

 

Bling Bling. 

[End Poverty]

It sucks. They charge you to take the CASPER, the MCAT, and when you apply to medical school.   For some people, the application process may take anywhere from 1-4 years, because they have to re-apply for several years before they get into medical school, which is very costly.  

 

On one hand,  it is understandable to ask for these costs because in regards to CASPER and Med school applications, there will be reviewers that will read and assess your responses and candidacy.

 

On the other hand, this process may dissuade a lot of candidates from lower SES or ones with financial constraints from applying. And I think we need more of these people ( ones who faced financial constraints) in med school because they understand what poverty means, they understand the struggles of people who are not very well off and they are able to relate to them and help them out.

 

I think it would be a good idea to fund some scholarships that cover those costs for individuals who may have financial needs, especially in the process of applying to medical school 

[Aceso]

I agree the American medical school admission process has great financial assistance for the applications. It would be nice to have something similar in Canadian schools. 

 

If you qualify for assistance in the US, you receive the chance to apply to 15 schools for free (including primary and secondary application costs). I was looking into that this year, and applying to about 15 schools is almost like $4000-5000 dollars. 

 

When making my budget for applications this year, without factoring interview costs, I am well over what I had planned to spend. Transcripts, MCAT, CASPer, OMSAS etc. they all substantially add up! And I tried applying for extra bursaries at my university, and they said they cannot consider application to graduate schools as an additional 'need'. Thus I wouldn't really qualify for any additional support, just have to work more hours :/