Travel for interviews

[gcuthbe1]

For residency or fellowship interviews....
I'm curious what your experience was/is with budgeting for interview travel. We currently live in NYC so at least airport/flight options are plentiful. However we're thinking of casting a wide net in terms of location for fellowship. While that's wonderful in terms of increasing our chances, I'm concerned about the potential cost that will result in.

How did you weigh the positives/negatives, how did you budget, and in retrospect what pieces of advice do you have? What amount of time did you have between being offered an interview and having to book travel? Did you go with your hubby and try to make a trip out of it?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[alotofyarn]

Traveling for us was kind of a nightmare, but partly because urology condenses their interviews into about two months, maybe, and he had to do a lot of them. His worst stretch was like 7 interviews in 9 days.

If we could get a SW flight, he booked immediately after accepting the interview, because you can reschedule those for free. I don't remember what he did about the rest. He was able to drive to some too. I only went on 2 of the interviews (out of 14 total), because they were places we were seriously considering and I was able to schedule an interview for my own job at the same time. He pretty much accepted almost all of his offers until it got closer to the end, and then he had to turn down a couple because of conflicting dates, so he took the ones he wanted more, and a couple because he felt like he had enough, it was going to be really expensive, and they were places that we pretty much would have ranked last based on location.

[gcuthbe1]

If we could get a SW flight, he booked immediately after accepting the interview, because you can reschedule those for free.
He pretty much accepted almost all of his offers until it got closer to the end, and then he had to turn down a couple because of conflicting dates, so he took the ones he wanted more, and a couple because he felt like he had enough, it was going to be really expensive, and they were places that we pretty much would have ranked last based on location.

This is really helpful, thank you! Do you recall how much you ended up spending on flights total (ballpark)?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[SoonerTexan]

I had a good breakdown somewhere at the end of the match 2014 thread or maybe in its own separate thread? I'll see if I can find it. We made use of a lot of airline points via credit card rewards, but it requires advanced planning


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MarissaNicole]

Isn't there a sticky? I had a detailed post about how we saved money. I think we spent about $5-6,000 back in 2009. And that was applying to a competitive specialty (more interviews needed, more travel, more expenses to ensure matching).

Wife of a PGY-6

[gcuthbe1]

Ok I don't have access to all the forums yet but should get it soon and then I'll try and search!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[gcuthbe1]

Isn't there a sticky? I had a detailed post about how we saved money. I think we spent about $5-6,000 back in 2009. And that was applying to a competitive specialty (more interviews needed, more travel, more expenses to ensure matching).

Wife of a PGY-6

Sadly everything surgery is competitive, so I'll definitely keep in mind a minimum of 6k, thank you so much!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[MarissaNicole]

I found it and bumped it. It's in financial survival which I believe is a public thread.

Wife of a PGY-6

[bobk]

I think $5-10K is a good estimate unless you live in the northeast (Boston-DC corridor) where so many locations are within relatively short driving distances.

[gcuthbe1]

I think $5-10K is a good estimate unless you live in the northeast (Boston-DC corridor) where so many locations are within relatively short driving distances.

Thank you!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[SoonerTexan]

I cant find my post, but we spent a little over $7k for 26 interviews. About 10 were local or drivable. Did a lot of Priceline for hotels and car rentals and used a ton of airline miles from Southwest and a Chase card we applied for in advance.

[MAPPLEBUM]

For residency or fellowship interviews....
I'm curious what your experience was/is with budgeting for interview travel. We currently live in NYC so at least airport/flight options are plentiful. However we're thinking of casting a wide net in terms of location for fellowship. While that's wonderful in terms of increasing our chances, I'm concerned about the potential cost that will result in.

How did you weigh the positives/negatives, how did you budget, and in retrospect what pieces of advice do you have? What amount of time did you have between being offered an interview and having to book travel? Did you go with your hubby and try to make a trip out of it?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Forgive me, I don't remember what year your husband is. Is he applying this or next year?

DH and I didn't have combined finances in medical school so neither of us have any idea he spent on residency interviews. We're gearing up for fellowship interviews this fall. I saved $8k, 100k CC points for hotels, and just took out a Delta Sky Miles card. (We debated between that and Southwest but SW doesn't do international apparently). It was also suggested on LDW to use Uber instead of renting a car. If I have the time I'll run miles to see if that's actually cheaper. My DH is going for one of the most competitive fellowships in his field so he's aiming to take as many interviews as he did for residency. If I knew what he'd spent for residency I could've estimated how much this would cost...

I thought i was being super smart by getting him a gift card to Black Lapel for his birthday this year. He got a light gray suit but then decided it wasn't formal enough. So homeboy went for a custom made suit by a guy in town. His taste in clothes have become increasingly more expensive as he's been in residency. But I think I've talked him out of a $400 pair of Munk Straps so I'm happy.

[MAPPLEBUM]

and YES any clothes he buys for fellowship comes out of the fellowship fund!! He can take less interviews if he spends all his money on clothes.

[gcuthbe1]

and YES any clothes he buys for fellowship comes out of the fellowship fund!! He can take less interviews if he spends all his money on clothes.

Yeah I have tons of delta sky miles bc I used to travel lots for work. He also has a capital one card that gives him travel points to use for any airline. We bought him a new suit for our wedding knowing he could use it for interviews, so lucky that's covered. We'll probably get him a couple fresh button downs. We live in NYC but are ready for a change to a more outdoorsy friendly city. Surgery is very competitive so we're casting a wide net and will probably have to go to a ton of interviews... Sounds like I should set aside a good $10k chunk but then just hope we can use points and find deals and won't have to use half of that...
I appreciate everyone's input!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[OrionGrad]

and YES any clothes he buys for fellowship comes out of the fellowship fund!! He can take less interviews if he spends all his money on clothes.

And don't forget, travel costs for fellowship interviews should all be tax deductible if you save the receipts! That includes travel, meals, internet costs, etc. (I know it's been debated on here before whether travel costs for residency interviews are deductible, so I'm not touching that one.)