The Financial drag of Matching

The whole application process is interesting. We shoot out our applications and hope for numerous interviews. Some get many, some get a few, some get zero interviews. It’s all different. The question is what happens when you actually have the interview. Sure, you prepare for it but that’s not all. You have to spend money. A lot of money.

First, applying to programs is expensive. Depending on whether you graduated Stateside (AMG) or went to school outside of the US, you will apply to as few as 5-15 or 100 and up respectively.

A very good friend who graduated from an American medical school applied to only 4 schools and had interviews at all four, ending up matching in his preferred spot. I also know friends that applied 200 plus programs and matched. I personally applied to about 150 programs. This disparity is just accepted as part of the application process.

As an IMG you will be spending about 2500$ - 5000$ on just shooting out applications. We have not even talked about other costs that come into play.

After submitting your applications, you have to wait for interviews. When the interviews come, you need to rent a place to live, you need to fly over there, you need to eat, you need to drive around. All of that costs money.

You have to spend approximately 600$-1000$ etc dollars per interview. I’m assuming that you are flying to your destination and staying in a hotel close the area. This racks up the more interviews you have. Imagine if you have 5- 20 interviews. Whew.

Not everyone is made of money. For most people, me included, they had to take out huge loans for medical school. This means there isn’t that much free money floating around to be invested in this process.

One of my friends dropped 10,000$ for the match. Not everyone I’m sure spends that much but the range can be from 5000 to 10,000 and that is no laughing matter for recent graduates, past graduates of medical school, and if you have your own family its even rougher.

Now, getting many interviews can be financially disrupting. However, interviews are a necessity to matching. You can’t match without an interview. Also, the more interviews the higher the probability of you matching is. Therefore we have no Choice of but to apply and shell out the money.

If you are reading this and you and you are not in the place where you are applying for the match YET then do everything that you can to make sure you match in one shot. How do you do that? Do well in your classes, rotations, and avoid failure in your USMLE Step exams. 

If you are applying for the match now, like I am, I want you to think about the interviews you get in this manner: 1)Think of all the money that you are spending as an investment in your future because you job if you get it will pay you back dividends, 2) remind yourself that the more interviews you greater your chances at matching. 

Good luck to all that applied this year.

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Next article: Having a Hard Time Matching. Who is to blame?

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