So you’ve scheduled an interview at your dream school and bought your plane ticket, but where will you stay the night before the interview?

Interviewees have several options available to them when choosing lodging.  Oftentimes, the obvious choice is a hotel room located close to the school, but this option can be expensive.  Staying with a student host can be a great alternative.

If you have browsed the Student Doctor Network Forums, you are probably aware that student hosting exists, but you might not understand exactly how it works or why it’s a good option.

Many schools offer student hosting programs to help applicants better bear interview costs.  While it might seem a bit daunting at first to stay with a stranger, students were once in your shoes and understand the challenges of the interview trail.  As a result, these kind souls have volunteered to help by offering a free night’s stay.

Also, student hosts are not admissions committee spies, as you might fear.  No need to worry that your Sponge Bob jammies will be the topic of the hour at the next committee meeting or that your failure to put the toilet seat down will lead to an immediate rejection.

In addition to free lodging, there are several other benefits of staying with a student host that might not be readily apparent.  An interview is not only a chance for the school to decide if you fit with their vision, but also for you to decide if a school meets your needs.  Who better to provide valuable information about life at a particular school than the students that attend on a daily basis?

Students can give you insight that you might not otherwise get during the formal tour or question and answer sessions.  You will see how the student lives and have a captive audience for questions that you might feel uncomfortable asking in front of a large group or other interviewees.  The feedback you receive about the school might be more candid.

Having an insider to contact may help to answer questions about the interview day itself.  How will you get to the school?  Where exactly is the admissions office?  How long does it take to get there?  What can I expect at my interviews?  Your host will be able to answer these questions.  Furthermore, since interview days often begin at the same time as class, you might be able to catch a ride to school with your host or take public transportation together.  Travelling with someone else is a great way to reduce the chances of a catastrophe on the way to your interview.

By now, you are probably thinking that staying with a host may be an even better option than a staying in a hotel.  There are, however, a few drawbacks to consider as well.

Since you are staying in someone else’s home, you will need to respect their space and be considerate.  While hosts do offer to help, it’s important to remember that they are busy students and might not be able to spend all of their time with you.  Also, you might be sleeping on a futon or couch as opposed to the comfortable bed you would likely encounter in a hotel.  Accordingly, you may need to bring sheets or towels with you.  Conditions vary from host to host so be sure to ask about your concerns before you travel.

Now that you’ve decided you would like to stay with a student host, how do you go about setting it up?  Lists of students willing to host applicants are frequently sent out along with interview information or posted on schools’ status pages or websites.  If not readily accessible, a call or e-mail to the admissions office could clear up whether or not this option is available to you. Schools may be able to provide you with the appropriate contact information if you ask.  If it is up to you to make arrangements from a list of available students, make sure to pick someone near the middle or bottom of the list as those at the top are most often called.

For students interviewing at MD schools, if you cannot find a student host through the school itself, try the “Pre-allo interview lodging thread” located at the top of the Pre-Allopathic discussion board in the Student Doctor Network Forums.

Once you’ve found a host, it’s a good idea to keep in touch with them and let them know of your travel plans and itinerary.  This way you can be sure that he or she will be home when you arrive.  Also, if you are not familiar with the city you are travelling to, your host might be able to offer some advice about the best way to get into town from the airport, bus, or train station.  Who knows, you could even get lucky and score a ride from the airport with your host!

At the end of your interview day, you’ll be glad that you stayed with a student host.   So wouldn’t it be nice to give your host a small token of appreciation?  After all, he or she helped you out immensely and, if nothing else, saved you some cash.  A $10-15 gift card to a local store, restaurant, or coffeeshop would suffice.  At the very least, when you do become a medical student, consider returning the favor by becoming a student host yourself.

You’ve been waiting for what seems like an eternity. You practically snatch the mail from the mail carrier as it is being delivered and frantically search through the stacks of coupons and bills to find some good news; just as you are ready to steel yourself for yet another disappointment, your heart stops.

There it is.

The school’s emblem sits silently above the return address on the envelope, meeting your stare. Hands shaking, you fumble with the envelope and eventually manage to tear it open. Unfolding the letter it contained, you discover that someone out there thinks you are interesting enough to offer you an interview.

After you finish dancing with your neighbors who were minding their own business until that point and get done laminating the letter, you catch your breath and wonder, “How do I proceed now?”

It is possible that you have never been on a plane before, nor traveled out of state. Now you are expected to travel to a city you have never been to, alone, and make a favorable impression upon an admissions committee member-oh, right, and then there’s the issue of paying for the trip as well.

Luckily, on the Student Doctor Network Forums, many students have already been through what you are about to go through and can offer you some valuable advice. If, however, you don’t feel like perusing pages of threads to get the answer to a quick question, this article might be just what you need.

First of all, take a deep breath. Before you decide on an interview date (if you have a choice), review your budget. You could potentially be paying for airfare, rental car and hotel. If you’re a poor student (like most of us), you need to cut corners wherever you can. Beware, however, that cutting corners on one item, may cause you to spend more on another. For example, if you pay less for your plane ticket because you stayed longer, you will need to pay more for your hotel and rental car. Conversely, if you stay only one night, you may have a more expensive flight.

The first thing to do is to browse the internet for ticket prices for the dates you have to choose from. If you don’t need to be one of the first few candidates interviewed, you can usually save a bit of money by booking a ticket for a later date. After all, if you knock their socks off, who cares if you interview in September or October?

Don’t just look at one website for airfares. Instead, check out as many as you can. Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz and other travel websites often have different sales and promotions. Some airlines, however, such as Southwest, Midwest and JetBlue do not list their flights on third-party website sites, so referring to the airline’s webpage can sometimes reveal cheaper flights or extra departure times and dates.

Check surrounding airports, not just the one closest to the school. You may be able to save a sizeable amount of money if you go to a larger airport that is farther away. Be aware, however, that the money you save on airfare might be lost due to obtain the extra ground transportation that is needed. If you are lucky, there may be a shuttle from the airport which will take you to your destination for minimal cost.

If you’re anything like me, you like to have a certain degree of control over the things that you plan. Because of this, I never book my plane tickets through priceline.com. I simply can’t take the chance of booking a ticket that might arrive too late or leave too early. If, however, you don’t care where you stay or what you drive, Priceline.com can be your best friend. Rooms can be found for fewer than $50, and rental cars can be under $20 a day-just don’t expect a blue Cadillac or a chocolate truffle under your pillow.

Although the chances of being separated from your checked baggage are slim, if you can carry your interview outfit onboard with you, do it. You absolutely do not want to be the person that arrives at his interview in a pair of jeans. In addition, I recommend you take a carry-on bag with essentials such as a small snack or two, a stick of deodorant, a music player, reading material, and a neck pillow. Remember, however, that there are restrictions on the amount of liquids you can take onboard a plane. For more details, check the Transportation Security Administration website at www.tsa.gov for all the latest regulations. If you need to carry some toiletries with you, either pay attention to the restrictions, or get yourself some of Travelon’s dissolving toiletries: “just add water!”

While smelling like a gorilla because your gel-stick deodorant was confiscated is not ideal, being sleep-deprived and fatigued during your interview is worse. Grogginess reduces your cognitive ability, inhibits your memory, and saps your energy. So if you don’t sleep like a baby when you’re on a plane, avoid red-eye flights at all costs. Likewise, if you try to save a few dollars by sleeping in the airport, odds are you will look like you slept in the airport. Make sure that you get a good night’s sleep the day before your interview so that you can put your best foot forward.

If you can’t afford a hotel, don’t think that sleeping in the airport is your only option. Some SDN members have graciously offered to house interviewees. If you don’t mind sleeping on a couch or using someone else’s bathroom, it’s a lot cheaper than a hotel room. Alternatively, medical schools often provide hosting through current medical students. In addition to giving you the opportunity to talk with someone on the inside, student housing is usually within walking distance to campus. If you choose to walk, just be careful at night.

Gas is expensive, air travel is exasperating, and motels too often are breeding grounds for who knows what. If you are able to find cheap plane tickets, catch a shuttle that stops near campus, and stay with a student then you’re one of the lucky few. Examine all your options before booking that trip and your travels on the interview trail will be much less stressful. If you play it smart, you just might save yourself enough to money to splurge on a hoodie to show off the very same school emblem you saw printed on the front of the envelope of your first interview invitation.

There are many learning opportunities for student doctors while they are in school, including a healthy blend of didactic and practical lessons. By the end of their training, most students in the U.S. have their fingers on the pulse of domestic medicine, but medical education cannot always impart the same lessons learned by students who participate in medical missions to developing parts of the world.  The experience that I have gained personally from traveling outside the United States has undoubtedly shaped me into a better student and I have become increasingly confident in my abilities as a a future clinician.

One of the first realizations many students experience when traveling abroad is that, despite its flaws, our medical system in the U.S. is often much more efficient than the those in developing countries. In many areas, conditions may go completely untreated and seemingly “simple” things such as diarrhea can take child’s life. Infrastructure is also an area of major concern; privileges that many doctors take for granted (some as simple as admitting patients to the hospital) are not as easily accomplished in underdeveloped areas. 

When traveling to other countries students are able to experience what is like to actually be the health care provider rather than a student merely observing patient care.  I had the opportunity to set up a pharmacy properly and was able to manage the people that were helping as technicians. This is something that many interns are not able to experience at their schools, however it is something that many new pharmacists must be ready to do shortly after graduation.

Students are also afforded the opportunity to explore other healthcare professions. Seize the opportunity to go and see what the other professionals are doing and how they do it. This helps the student doctor appreciate the other professionals that they work with and empowers them to better function as an integral member of a patient-centered healthcare team.

International healthcare opportunities expose the student to a vast array of learning opportunites unmatched in the classroom.  The easiest way to find opportunities at your institution is to seek the guidance of peers and faculty (there may even exist an office specifically for international study).  Studying healthcare abroad can be an invaluable, enriching experience that requires nothing but a strong work ethic and an open mind.