Currently trying to figure out how much to allocate for interview season. I am on the west coast and applied broadly to throughout the country. Hoping to go on 15 interviews in most major cities in the country (NYC, CHI, BOS, etc). How much would you think it could cost? I'm thinking around $10,000....too much? not enough? any thoughts?
Turns out, some Boston residents already answered this one: "Financial and Educational Costs of the residency interview process for urology applicants," http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18295310 Basically, the median cost for interviewing expenses was $4000 (in 2006) with a median cost of $330 per interview.
I know. I don't know how I'm going to afford going to all these random interview days on both coasts (that is, if I get the interviews!). I heard a rumor from the AUA that University of New Mexico is going to be interviewing applicants via the internet this year using Skype???!!!Has anyone heard about this? Sounds like a good idea to prevent applicant bankruptcy!
very interesting. thanks for the post.
$330 per interview applies more for the folks on the east coast who can drive to a lot of their interviews. For west-coasters, that's not going to work. I took out a private loan for $8000 for my 17 interviews. I had to make a couple last-minute flight reservations but for the most part got pretty good deals. I used Priceline for every hotel and got some phenomenal deals. I took public transport everyone I could, only rented a car in 2 places. And I spent all $8000. It's worth it.
Good point about things being more expensive for west coasters, definitely true. But you also did 17 interviews, which is awesome but probably not what most of us are going to have the opportunity to do (the average last year was 10...).