Tuesday, July 01, 2014

Vet School Application: Fees and More Fees

I just spent $162 to send my GRE scores to my short list of six vet schools. You might be thinking, well, that's not too bad.

But wait, there's more.

We also need to factor in the cost of the GRE itself (around $200), plus the study guide and the extra online practice exams that I purchased (combined cost $70). I also had to pay a $50 fee when I changed the date of my exam.

It will cost me around $200 per school to send them my VMCAS application when it is completed. So there's $1200.

All six of my short list schools have additional supplemental applications on their own websites that have to be completed, and of course, those have to be submitted with fees as well. Can't have VMCAS or ETS raking in all the money on fees, can we? These are usually around $50-75 per school, so that will be around $400.

I also have to pay UT Austin to send official transcripts to VMCAS ($10). OSU will send them for free.

These are just the fees that I know about. I'm sure that more will come up between now and the end of the summer!

Thankfully, the master's degree will not cost me very much. My tuition is paid, I get a small scholarship each quarter, and I'm employed as a graduate research assistant for the entire period, even summer, so I receive a small monthly paycheck. These aren't enough to fully cover my living expenses but I'm just happy that the tuition is taken care of!

Despite the annoying money leakage caused by these creeping fees, I'm keeping my eye on the end game...

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