I’ve been seeing a lot of posts in premed parent Facebook groups about families spending thousands of dollars on application services, MCAT tutoring, and even paid clinical experiences. It makes me wonder if this is becoming the norm, or if it’s more driven by anxiety and how unclear the process can feel. The process itself is already expensive, so it’s kind of wild how much extra money some people feel pressured to spend upfront for medicine, which isn’t exactly a get richquick path.
3 Likes
So far our S24 is relying on the excellent pre-health advising at his college, but I am under no illusion it is free, it is just bundled into the overall cost. I don’t want to judge people who feel they need more help than their college provides, but hopefully they have at least tried that resource out first.
I think test prep depends on the kid–some are fine self-studying, others seem to need classes/tutors. Again, I’m not going to judge if a kid feels like they need the latter sort of help.
Paid clinical? Like as in paying someone to do a clinical experience? Never heard of it before, although I am not participating in that sort of social media for parents discussion. My initial reaction is that sounds like the opposite of what med schools reportedly want–like are there not adequate volunteer opportunities?–but I could be wrong.
In terms of being paid FOR being like an EMT, MA, scribe, or such, that seems fine. But I gather that is also leading to more people doing glide years so they can do that more full time as opposed to having to work around a very busy school schedule.
2 Likes
Do you mean students are paying for the experience, or are they getting paid? I am not sure what this means.
1 Like
Application services and MCAT prep has been in place since I applied for medical school 30 years ago. I have never heard of paying for a clinical experience other than MA or EMT programs before working in those roles.
1 Like
Paying for MCAT tutoring seems normal for me. I am pretty sure that we paid for GRE tutoring for at least one daughter, and offered to pay for the other daughter.
However, I have always been skeptical about paying for application services. I know that some parents do pay for this, both for undergraduate admissions and for graduate programs (whether medical or otherwise). However, I have always thought that admissions staff are intelligent, experienced, and understand this process quite well. I think that they can see through an application that is too perfect. I also think that applications should come across as genuine and sincere. We just let our kids write their own applications. This at least worked well for them. Perhaps most importantly they got into graduate programs which were a good fit for them. So I do understand that parents sometimes pay for application services but I really do not know whether this is a good idea.
Yes there is a great deal of uncertainty in this process. Predicting graduate admissions, whether MD, DO, or something else, seems almost impossible to me.
This is definitely not a get rich quick path. I have known a couple of doctors who worked until they were 70, and I have wondered whether the delay in funding their retirement funds up front had anything to do with their late retirement (although in both cases they seemed to be in very good shape at 70).
1 Like
Yes, people were talking about fee-based clinical or research programs where you pay to be placed in a hospital, clinic, or lab.
2 Likes
Ugh.
3 Likes
Are medical school admission interviews still largely done in-person, requiring short-notice* travel by the applicant? Before COVID-19, these travel costs were typically a large part of the costs of applying to medical school.
*Short-notice travel often means higher airline fare and hotel costs. Of course, travel may also impact academic and extracurricular activities.
1 Like
Most interviews are still virtual, but it’s still expensive. My daughter applied to 30 schools and spent about $6,000 on applications plus about $2,000 for the MCAT and prep.
A good friend’s daughter was just accepted to medical school - she self studied for the MCAT. She attended Williams as an undergraduate. Since then she’s been working as a poorly paid medical assistant at a dermatologists office (she informed me that this is a very popular route for kids hoping for medical school). No paid help.
2 Likes
Is she my daughter’s twin? 
It sounds very similar to my daughter’s path, except she went to UMD. She was also just accepted to medical school, self-studied for the MCAT, and worked as a poorly paid medical assistant at a dermatology clinic.
Medical school, like many other advanced degrees that require tests, shadowing, volunteering, interviews, multiple (and many) applications etc is costly…even if you self study.
Sadly, some do not have the means to do it.