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.
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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.
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Do you mean students are paying for the experience, or are they getting paid? I am not sure what this means.
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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.
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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).
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Yes, people were talking about fee-based clinical or research programs where you pay to be placed in a hospital, clinic, or lab.
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Ugh.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Doctor’s will be replaced by AI doctor’s anyway. Lol. It’s coming but not that soon, kinda.
Do shadowing early. I hate it when a med student late in the game is trying to score points by shadowing to add to an application /essay. Do it as early as you can in the process.
Do they really think that shadowing late in the game would score points 
?
I always thought shadowing was important so that you knew what you were getting into.
I am part of a mentor group for med students or allied.
What you are saying is correct. But some students would shadow then want a recommendation on someone I just met. It got so bad when the student would call to shadow my office said OK but no referrals will be given.
Now, most of our employees are pre med. They all got fantastic recommendations and all got into their program of choice.
We have had some students that actually come back and we make a relationship with. They get good recommendations. I also give a mini interview for each. Students tend to have lack of confidence when interviewing. So I give some tips. Example. One girl was brilliant but kept looking down when I asked her a question and like muttered. Took me like 15 minutes but taught her how to answer the question while looking up at me. Anyway, it’s a lot of fun and I have some amazing thank you letters.
So yes. Any experience is good. But working in the setting is great if they can handle it.
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One of my kid’s best friends from college started medical school last fall. Attended Midd (of course), decided against going through the official pre-med program at Midd, but did all of the required courses. Worked as a medical tech for two years while self-studying for the MCAT and while applying. Was accepted to one of their top choices.
Like your friend’s kid, they also did not use any paid services.
They shared an apartment (along with another bunch of people) with my kid while my kid was working as a lab tech, getting her research experience.
So will everybody else. 
The path to avoid that is blue collar work. Roofers are pretty safe for the foreseeable future.
The woman who cuts my hair is pretty confident as well.
She saw the results during Covid when everyone watched a few YouTube videos and proceeded to do their own cuts, color, highlights, lowlights. And bangs. So many bangs. And do it yourself Keratin treatments in the backyard.
She is no longer worried about being replaced by AI after repairing the results of homegrown hair styling!!!
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Lol. This was sorta tongue in check response. I should of used an emoji. I lecture in this space and that is all people talk about. The next 5 year’s will be interesting to say the least.
And please let’s get back on topic! TIA!