The application cycle, week by week
The application cycle, one calm step at a time.
Fee calculators built on the published schedules, an activity tracker that counts characters like the AMCAS form, and a school list you can reason about. No account, no third-party requests, and nothing you type leaves your browser.
The cycle budget
What applying costs, in the order you pay it.
A default plan: 20 MD schools, one MCAT, 15 secondaries at $100, and 5 in-person interviews. The MCAT and primary fees are the published ones; the rest are estimates you can change in the calculator.
Jan to Apr, before the cycle
The MCAT
One registration is $360. Scores take about a month to post, so most applicants test by April.
Adds $360
May to June
The primary application
AMCAS charges $180 for the first school and $48 for each school after it. Twenty schools is one fee and nineteen add-ons.
Adds $1,092
July to September
Secondaries
Most schools send their own application with their own fee. This is where budgets break, because the fees arrive all at once.
Adds $1,500
September to February
Interviews
Many are virtual now. For the in-person ones: a flight, a hotel night, meals, a ride, and one suit for the season.
Adds $3,250
Running total, default plan
Default plan total: $6,202. MCAT registration $360, AMCAS for 20 schools $1,092, secondaries $1,500, interviews $3,250.
- MCAT registrationpublished$360
- AMCAS, 20 schoolspublished$1,092
- Secondaries, 15 at $100estimate$1,500
- Interviews, 5 in personestimate$3,250
Primary and MCAT fees as of 2026-10-21, cited in each calculator. Secondary and interview amounts are default estimates, not data.
Activity descriptions
Count characters the way the form does.
- Every character counts, spaces and punctuation included.
- A line break counts as one character.
- The AMCAS preview is the final word. Paste there before you certify.
Published primary fees
Each added school costs less than the first.
| Service | Published fee | For 20 |
|---|---|---|
| AMCASMD schools | $180 first $48 each added | |
| AACOMASDO schools | $198 first $60 each added | |
| TMDSASTexas schools | $235 flat | |
| CASPAPA programs | $185 first $65 each added | |
| MCATOne registration | $360 |
Cited from the official fee pages as of 2026-10-21; each calculator links its sources and dates.
Your cycle, from this browser