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[Jan. 1st, 2012|01:06 pm]
Scott
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Getting a license to practice medicine in the United States requires a little bit of studying and hard work and so on, and a lot of propitiating the Acronym Gods with sacrifices of money.
$900 for the USMLE1, a nine-hour examination taken (usually) around the second year of medical school.
...plus about $300 for study materials, because it's very difficult to pass the test without study materials, and they don't come cheap.
...plus about $200 for travel and hotel bills, since the nearest testing center to me was Dublin.
$900 for the USMLE2CK, a nine-hour examination taken (usually) around the third year of medical school.
...plus another $500 for the study materials and travel again.
$1300 for the USMLE2CS, a six-hour examination taken (usually) around the fourth year of medical school.
...plus about $700 for travel and hotel bills; since in this case the nearest test center to me was Philadelphia.
$50 to get your transcripts for all those exams from the NBME or ECFMG.
$200-$1200 "processing fee" for your application to do a medical elective in the United States, usually considered a good idea if you want residency programs to take you seriously in the NRMP.
$50 to sign up for the NRMP.
$50 to sign up for ERAS, who will not even look at you until you've sent your school transcripts ($50), photograph, USMLE/COMLEX transcripts (see above), three letters of recommendation, personal statement, application forms, and immortal soul.
...plus $600 extra PTAL fee if you are interested in practicing medicine within the state of California.
$800 (about $20 per program, times about 40 programs selected to per person) to apply to residency programs.
...plus $2000-$3000 for interviews. This is what I'm going through now. I have seven interviews in three weeks, each (except one) in a different state. That means lots of airplane flights (or occasional train trips) from state to state, hotels, restaurant food, et cetera.
...plus $400 for a business suit, because obviously people wearing clothing costing less than $400 are unqualified to practice medicine and would be summarily rejected from any interview.
...plus money I have not yet paid and am deliberately avoiding looking at to get the ECFMG to officially certify that I have done all of these things.
For a total of $11000, assuming you don't do anything else expensive like, say, go to medical school.
(on the plus side, I am getting to see several interesting cities and states over the next few weeks, and meet interesting people, and get rained on by interesting storms. And if anyone reading this is in Springfield or Cincinnati or Minneapolis, let me know. And if anyone reading this is in Memphis, let me know and then move.) |
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How much was the medical school?
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/34582240/8110360) | From:  gwendally
2012-01-01 07:38 pm (UTC)
Springfield, where the Simpsons live? | (Link)
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Which Springfield? :-)
Well, that certainly puts my grad school applications into perspective. Even after counting the cost of relocating to a new country and furnishing an apartment from scratch.
That's enough to make getting a law license look cheap. On the other hand, if I ever want to do something crazy like move, there's another ~$1000 (if I can waive in) or ~$2500 (if I have to take another bar exam).
I wonder:
1. What fraction of people who graduate accredited medical schools in first-world countries who are interested in working as doctors in the United States, would have negative marginal productivity as doctors in the United States,
2. What fraction of those would-be "bad doctors" are weeded out by the need to jump through these hoops, and
3. How many would-be "good doctors" (those who'd have positive marginal productivity as doctors in the United States) are prevented from working as doctors in the United States by either the cost and hassle of these hoops, or by attempting and failing to pass these hoops. | |
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