You've been rejected! Should you get your supplemental fee back?

[atticus27]

Avg. # of applicants per school=let's say 1600x $50 sup. fee= $80,000.00

1600 applicants x $100 supp. fee = $160,000.00

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[199778]

I don't like paying $50 to get a rejection letter.

 

[Spock87]

Hell yeah!!! I want my $$$ back LOL

 

[fhx06]

I wish I could get my money back. Unfortunately, it goes to pay the processing of your application, so nope.

 

[atticus27]

About 100k to process applications? Do the adcoms process applications on an all expenses paid 6-month stay at the nearest Ritz Carlton Hotel.

 

[fhx06]

I would've suggested an expensive dinner first, but hey, a hotel stay does sound nice. The money probably goes to pay for quite a bit and varies between schools. I suppose you can always call and ask them what the fees are going towards.

...and now that you mention it, I wonder what Albany uses the $100 per student for.

 

[67echo]

Avg. # of applicants per school=let's say 1600x $50 sup. fee= $80,000.00

1600 applicants x $100 supp. fee = $160,000.00

no way

 

[117296]

Avg. # of applicants per school=let's say 1600x $50 sup. fee= $80,000.00

1600 applicants x $100 supp. fee = $160,000.00

No, you shouldn't. A supplemental application fee at least puts some stop to people applying to more than 10 schools.

 

[diastole]

The supplemental fees are like buying a lotto ticket, only more expensive with way better odds. Like the lotto, you could choose to not buy and have no chance at the prize or you can pay and risk getting nothing out of it. Fifty or one hundred bucks seems like a small price to pay for a chance at something you really want. You lost this time but maybe next time you will be the big winner and it will all be worth it.

 

[pharmplz11]

...

 

[rasmalai]

^ i agree

i just want to get in.

 

[AngelaCL]

Oh man, imagine what it would be like if there was no application fee or if it was really low... everyone would apply to dozens of schools, each school would have thousands of applications, it would take them months and months to review... It does stink to have to pay out, and it'd be nice if there was a cap of $75 or so. It also is unfair that lower income students are going to be at a big disadvantage since they can't afford to retake the PCAT, retake classes/take extra classes to boost GPA, do special courses to study for the PCAT, fly out for a ton of interviews, or apply to too many schools... I know I spent a ton getting into pharmacy school and I didn't even have to fly anywhere and only applied to a couple schools! But hey, once you get in and commit to $130k of loans, the $$$ you're spending now is but a drop in the bucket.

 

[dumbguy]

I think some people are missing the real question here. It's not about whether there should be an application fee or not. It's whether you should get your money back if you are rejected.
If you're rejected, I don't think you should get your money back. It's a tough loss that you have to accept. You should research the school and requirements before applying, and find out what are your chances. The fees are there to cover the cost of reviewing your application, whether you are accepted or rejected. I heard some schools like UCSF didn't even look at your application if you sent the application and application fee to the fee payment address. In that case, I think you should get your money back because they didn't even bother looking at your application.

 

[thephoenician88]

lol, if there were no fee, i'll try my odds at every school pharmcas offered haha

no but the supplemental is used to cover the amount of work they do. you can't think of it as a group ordeal, you go one by one. So you're basically paying someone for their time to look at your application individually and say yes/no.

If you wanted to do a group ordeal, they'd might as well line us up by gpa/pcat and do it that way rather than look at essays etc.

 

[pullida]

Regardless of whether you've been rejected or not, you probably shouldn't get the supplemental fee back because most of it should have been used to pay the person who reviewed your application and decided whether you're good enough for an interview. Of course as a pre-pharm myself, this is terrible. The app fees, supplemental app fees, travel and accommodations all add up to a good chunk of money.

I agree the amount should cap off at about $75. Anything above that doesn't seem right for supp app.

Also, some schools still use paper applications. In the long term, the schools would probably save money by using the online format. It would save the student and the school time, money and anxiety (quick status checks online for the anxious student).

 

[thephoenician88]

personally, i don't think pharmcas should charge the amount it does for more extra schools. the initial fee, ok, that factors in gpa/lors/etc, but the 40 40 40 for other schools just isn't fair.