So far, I have paid (approximately):
Step 1: $500
Step 2 CK: $500
Step 2 CS: $1000 + transportation and hotel
Step 3: $600
Part 1 PM&R boards: $1300
Part 2 PM&R boards: $1700 + transportation and hotel
Might I suggest that these fees are entirely ridiculous? I'm especially irritated about Step 2 CS, considering I was the very first class who had to take it, and it was just not a pleasant way to spend $1000+ when I was already broke.
I read somewhere that approximately 20,000 people go to medical school every year. So if they are charging $500 for Step 1 (I think it's actually more now), that is $10 million. Where the hell does that money go?? Why does it cost 10 million dollars for a bunch of students to sit in front of a computer and all take the same test? Who is profiting from this?
For that amount of money, we could, like, make a really cool movie about pirates going into outer space.
Pirates in outer space. I can picture that already.
ReplyDeleteI can't agree more. I've got $500 out the door this year for both USMLE and COMLEX. You'd think that would include hors d'oeuvres while taking it or something.
ReplyDeleteI registered for step 1 last week. Cost me $790 :/
ReplyDeleteWhy don't they just make it an even thousand?
DeleteI'm only through Step 1 and Step 2 CK and CS and I get so unbelievably frustrated EVERY TIME I have to pay outrageous amounts for those stupid exams. AND your list didn't include the cost of residency/fellowship applications and interviews. Not only do we pay for the exams, but we have to pay a fee to release the scores to ERAS! That is on top of the ridiculous amounts we pay simply to apply through a computer system. Grrrr... nothing like making us take us more in loans to pay all of this to the unknown gnomes that get to spend it....
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, I forgot about the ERAS fee and the interview stuff. Actually, that ended up not being a huge expense for me because I only applied to 7 residency programs and they were all within an hour drive of where I lived. And I only applied to one fellowship that interviewed me on the phone.
DeleteOsteopathic students, if they elect to take the USMLE in addition to their own COMLEX licensing exams, can tack on a few extra hundred. Plus the fun of, you know, taking the exam "twice".
ReplyDeleteAlso, for the COMLEX PE, our version of the USMLE CS, we have only one testing site for the whole country. It's in the Philadelphia area. Sort of like an osteopathic pilgrimage. You must visit Conshohocken, PA during your education. I was fortunate that my transportation costs consisted of nothing more than the toll to cross the river into Philly.
We all have to go to Rochester, Minnesota for our oral boards. Try find a direct flight from *anywhere* that goes there.
DeleteFly into Minneapolis/St. Paul airport. There are a bunch of connecting flights to Rochester daily. Or a shuttle ride. It is about an hours drive, and about a 20 min plane ride.
DeleteDon't live there anymore, but that is how it was a few years ago.
Uh, they did make that movie. Treasure Planet. 2002.
ReplyDeleteBeat me to it. Great movie.
DeleteI am graduating from med school this month and have already spent over $6000 on exams- Step 1 and 2 are close to $800 now, CS~$1400, and 2 Canadian licensing exams which were $1500 each, (one of which only tested that I spoke English even though I lived in Canada until I was 22). I never bothered to add up how much I spent on ERAS and interviewing but I estimate it to be $5000-6000 which is average or a bit less than most of my friends spent on it.
ReplyDeleteI'm taking step 1 in a few weeks and it was 525$... am I signed up for the wrong exam or something??
ReplyDeleteNo, same exam. The cost difference lies in where your medical school is located. LCME/AOA schools pay less than schools outside the USA/Canada. Fair? I'll let you be the judge.
DeleteSources:
http://www.nbme.org/students/examfees.html
http://www.ecfmg.org/fees/index.html
Don't forget about any testing preparation (courses/books) you had to pay for.
ReplyDeleteAlso, don't forget about that test it took to get you into med school to begin with. The MCAT. I don't really remember how much that cost, though.
The MCAT was $250 plus a $2000 review course. Yikes!
DeleteI think my parents must have paid for the mcat :) And no review course for me.
DeleteA few thousand is really nothing compared to how much you must be making now.
ReplyDeleteStill. At the time, it felt like I was blowing my food budget on exams.
Deletejust wait. cme is a $$$$$cash$$$$$ industry.
ReplyDeleteBut my work pays for those :)
DeleteThe MCAT is $240, which I thought was expensive! I guess they're just prepping you to pay more and more and more on each test, yippii!
ReplyDeleteI think step 1 was $500 when I wrote it in 2010. LMCC Part 1 is $900 and I expect Part 2 is about the same. No idea where that money goes considering that the applications are almost exclusively online.
ReplyDeleteAs for other costs, away electives cost anything from nothing to $295 each, CaRMS application fees start at $400 for 4 programs and another $25 for each additional program. Then there's the cost of accommodation and transportation for electives and interviews.
And, no, this wasn't how it was in the past. We are being fleeced.
Yeah, my father says he spent $1 for college and $10 for med school. And the exams were fifty cents apiece.
DeleteHah. Well, actually my dad's med school tuition wasn't much more than the LMCC fee... (admittedly without inflation from the mid-70s)
DeleteI think Part 2 of the LMCC is actually $2000...awesome
DeleteI'm a 2nd year podiatry student, and my registration for NPMLE part I was a whopping $900. :( On top of that, we had to buy our own surgical/medical instruments and that was also around $900+. It truly is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI'm really thankful that I barely missed Step 2 CS. They implemented that the year after I graduated.
ReplyDeleteMy school until that point had a graduation OSCE, which sucked but at least was free. They built this really fancy testing center which I took the OSCE in, complete with simulated patient exam rooms with hidden cameras, two way mirrors, souped up PA system, etc. There was a rumor that the center was built because the school thought they would get a contract from the USMLE to be one of the sites for Step 2 CS. Only it didn't happen!
I don't know why but I read the title as 'Test Feces'.
ReplyDelete... and for the amount of money they make on Step 2, we could HIRE pirates to TAKE US to outer space...
ReplyDelete(current M3, taking Step 2 CK/CS in August. No, I'm not bitter at all about having to drop nearly $2000 for the test fees...)