Costs?

[Quester]

Hey ya'll,

 

I've been thinking of a list of schools to apply but I realized that it's probably gonna cost me more than I would anticipate.

 

To those of you who applied last cycle, how much did you approximately expend on US applications (primary, secondary, airfare, etc)? How many schools have you applied, and was it actually worth applying that many?

 

Thanks.

[ChicoMaki]

I applied to 23 schools (4 top 10, 6 in top 11-20, 7 in 21-30, and a few "safety schools" which really weren't safety schools in the end.

 

The primary and Secondary cost me about $2300 (~900 for primary). I interviewed at 5 schools and used as many air miles as i could but still spent about $3000 travelling (i stayed with student hosts to help). If I were to do it again, I would probably cut it down to about 15-20 schools with good diversity in the schools. However, I would do it again as getting a phone call in November about an acceptance really dropped my shoulders for the rest of the year and made the interviewing process more relaxing.

 

Overall, around $5000 total for the cycle, but imo, worth it (even though I ended up getting into one of the two schools in Canada that competes with the Top 20 in the USA).

 

GL

[Quester]

I applied to 23 schools (4 top 10, 6 in top 11-20, 7 in 21-30, and a few "safety schools" which really weren't safety schools in the end.

 

The primary and Secondary cost me about $2300 (~900 for primary). I interviewed at 5 schools and used as many air miles as i could but still spent about $3000 travelling (i stayed with student hosts to help). If I were to do it again, I would probably cut it down to about 15-20 schools with good diversity in the schools. However, I would do it again as getting a phone call in November about an acceptance really dropped my shoulders for the rest of the year and made the interviewing process more relaxing.

 

Overall, around $5000 total for the cycle, but imo, worth it (even though I ended up getting into one of the two schools in Canada that competes with the Top 20 in the USA).

 

GL

 

Wow, thanks for your response. I told my folks that I'll probably be applying to 5-8 Cdn schools and 15-20 State schools and they just dropped their jaws open. lol

 

I guess all together, including MCAT/prep costs would total around $10,000. gawd, I can't imagine not even getting one acceptance after all that investment!

 

So where are you heading next year?

[Guest viscous]

i spent $3000 including transportation and hotel fare to get 2 US interviews (i got 3 in total out of 14 i applied to) before the canadian ones. Lots of money but it helped me personally to get out of my humbleness shell and ace canadian interviews so it was worth it for me.

[Quester]

i spent $3000 including transportation and hotel fare to get 2 US interviews (i got 3 in total out of 14 i applied to) before the canadian ones. Lots of money but it helped me personally to get out of my humbleness shell and ace canadian interviews so it was worth it for me.

 

Are you suggesting that we should lean towards being "cocky" during our interviews? lol:p

[Guest viscous]

not cocky. But you should be able to articulate your uniqueness and achievements in a sophisticated manner which would leave the interviewers genuinely interested in your persona.