MCAT - Is there a Doctor in the house?

[Peter Stahl]

My daughter is doing pre-med classes and all of her classes so far are being paid by the GI bill or what ever it's called now days. Never thought she'd go to college let alone Medical school. Anyone go through this and can give us some tips for financing or scholarships for Med school. She spent 8 years in the Navy and really didn't want to go back in the service at all. She said that she wants to take a MCAT class which is 6 weeks and cost $12,000.

[Dan Friedrichs]

LOML is currently in medical school. I don't think there is much in the way of scholarships for med school tuition - most med students take out massive loans (there are specific loans targeted to med students). Out-of-state tuition can run >$70k/yr (NOT including living expenses), and given the high competition for spots in medical schools, your daughter may consider herself lucky to get a single acceptance from an out-of-state school. It's really expensive, and that expense is one of the reasons we will soon be seeing a massive shortage of family doctors (it's awfully hard to pay back that size of loan on a GP's salary, which may only be $80k/yr, starting).

I don't think a $12k MCAT class could possibly produce a good return-on-investment. Everything they could teach is available for free, and the content of the MCAT is no secret.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Peter,

I can't help you with financial information as I am not familiar with it. As you are probably aware, the M-cat and the interviews are the two most important hurdles to getting accepted to med. school. I watched my youngest son struggle with those.

[Peter Stahl]

Dan,

I think you're right about the GP shortage. Doctors don't make as much as people think, a lot of expenses. Where did your wife get her MCAT info from?

[Darrin Johnson]

12K strikes me as WAY too much money, but it has been 20 years since I took the MCAT. I did the Kaplan review course at the time, not sure if it improved my score but it is much less than 12K to take it (http://www.kaptest.com/).

Best of luck, it's a long road but a rewarding career.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Peter,

One of the very best references is a forum called studentdoctor.net. All the "tricks" of the interview and application process are pretty well documented by the members there. I think it would be well worth it to spend literally hundreds of hours just reading through old posts on their forum.

Another thing that shocks some people is the cost of the application, itself. Most schools charge hundreds of dollars to just send in an application, and in order to have a reasonable chance of admission, sometimes you have to apply to 20+ schools. Some people easily spend $10k just on application fees!

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

I would advise to re-evaluate this MCAT class. She may need some guidance but not $12k expence to learn what she already know.
Ed.

[Peter Stahl]

Thanks for all the great information so far. I'll pass this along to her. She is going to Rowen University in NJ and is going to try and get into their Med School which they are going to start soon.

[Bill Edwards(2)]

She should contact the local American Legion and see if they'll run it up to the
reginal level, because they stay pretty current with vets' benefits.

It's worth an effort. If the local won't help, get hold of state.