Estimated Expense from start of USMLE to start of Residency

Here is an account of expenses during the USMLE journey It is one of the limiting factors. It will be an estimate and will apply to those who don't have any relatives in USA.

1- Exam fees: about $ 2400
Step 1: $ 1950 Step 2: $ 2950 (if taken in the Pakistan) and $ 780 if in the USA CS: $ 1400 Step 3: $ 780
2- Travel expenses: $5600 ($3600 + $2000)
- One has to go at least 3 times to USA before he starts residency - $1200 x 3= $3600
- One has to travel for CS and interviews inside USA that's variable depending how many and how remote interviews one gets (I will share my own expense here, $ 2000 as I had most of interviews in New York, but I had to fly to Atlanta for CS and fly to Missouri and Wisconsin for interviews)
3-Expense on USCE:
Include expense on electives, observer ship - estimate is $500 to $1000 per rotation of 4 weeks.
4-Living expense in the USA:
>Depends whether you get residency in 1st attempt or not. >Accommodation at APPNA house is $ 50 / week. >Accommodation charges where you do clinical rotations. >Total estimate for accommodation and food is $ 500 per month with a total of 9 months x500 = $4500.
5-Match application: $3000
On average it takes $3000 to apply for the match and NRMP registration and My ERAS token
So the total expense before you start earning is around $15000. It is highly variable and depend upon how planned you are, in how many minimum visits you do all your stuff, in what areas you get rotations and interviews and what friends you have during all this process.
6- For repeat applicants
 $ 7000 to $ 7500 is the minimum expenditure in addition to the above calculated amount. ($2500 match application, $1250 for ticket (multiply by 2 if you travel twice, once for USCE after missing previous match, once for coming back on interviews), remaining $ 1250 for travelling, $ 1000 for 5 months stay and accommodation(during match season), add $2000 - average minimum expenses on 4-5 months of additional USCE before match application) But in case , unfortunately, one has to apply again then it all depends upon personal preferences.(How much effort and dollars you want to invest depending upon your will, strength and chances of reselection- EVALUATE YOURSELF CRTITICALLY ON YOUR OWN AND ASK EXPERIENCED SENIORS) Some follow the track of unpaid research for a year, some go for 5,6 months of clinical rotations, so the city where u will work (observer-ship, externship ,research-without pay) will decide the amount of dollars So the aggregate touches a considerable amount of $ 23000 for repeat applicants.

By:
Waqas Nawaz, MD
Faran Ahmad, MD

Comments

RESIDENCY INTERVIEW EVALUATION FORM

I have attached a sample evaluation form that is used to evaluate applicants during an interview. You can score a theoretical maximum of 120 points. Let’s discuss it in detail: 1) USMLE Scores (2 to 10 points): After you get the interview, your scores do matter but not to the same extent as interview skills! You can score 10 points provided you have great scores which correspond to >=245 on step 1 and >=253 on CK. Step 3 is not mentioned on the form and its importance varies depending on the specialty that you are applying and the program. For e.g. Psychiatry places a great weightage on step 3 while IM is not that rigid about step 3. 2) Medical Knowledge (other than USMLE scores) (0 to 10 points): When you are asked any clinical question, this is where your clinical experience will help you. A person who has strong clinical experience will nail this section vs. a person who does not have clinical experience will not be able to create an impression in this section. 3) Me...

MY Step 2 CK Experience 284 Medhat Farwati

Dear (future) Doctors, I am Medhat Farwati, a Syrian graduate from Aleppo University, Faculty of Medicine. Hereby I share with you my experience with Step 2 CK. 1. Score: 284 2. Self-assessments: UWSA 1: 273 (2 months out) UWSA 2: 276 ( 1 week out) NBME 7: 277 (1 week out) NBME 8: 280 (3 days out) 3. Preparation time: After I was done with Step 1, I moved to the US as a postdoctoral research fellow. As such, I realized it is going to be challenging to navigate my research du ties, US rotations, Step 2 CS exam, and Step 2 CK preparation. Collectively, the actual preparation time for CK was 12 months with an average studying time ranging from 4 hours a day for the first 10 months to 8 hours a day for the last 2 months prior to my exam. 4. Materials used: UW Step 2 CK (x3) UW Step 3 (x2) Kaplan Q bank (x1) Internal Medicine Essentials Q bank De Virgilio (surgery textbook) Up to date and Medscape Google, YouTube, and Siri 😊 UW Step 2: Your baseline. Most people preparing for CK rega...

Step 1-238

Hello guys, I want to share my experience as a gratitude for all the people that shared their step 1 journey before .For me all the stories posted in this group gave me strength to continue and became my guidelines in a process from I didn’t know anything about. Started with Kaplan lecture notes except for pathology. Then I watched all Kaplan 2014 videos except for pathology. Then I did Pathoma and gave my first FA read along with DIT videos, it made it easier to digest the book. Then I solved Usmle Rx and jumped straight to Uworld , first pass timed random mode score 62 % and after that I made it second time 85%. I felt confident with the knowledge I had but not with my test taking skills because I made online nbme 15 with a score of 213 and a lot of silly mistakes so I decided to do Kaplan qbank timed random mode( score 77%). I felt is very strong in anatomy and physiology concepts. After that I started to make more nbmes and I realize that my weakness was test taking skill...

USMLE Made Easy

Search This Blog