Cost of Applying to Medical Residency in the US

Applying for a medical residency position in the States can be extremely costly. There are costs outside of the USMLE exams and the resources you’ll buy to prepare for them, and it’s important to know what those costs are before applying. The bulk of these costs will be in the form of Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) fees. The most important variable is the number of hospitals/programs you’re planning on applying to.

The number of programs you’ll need to apply to will depend on a number of factors like your educational background, USMLE scores, Letters of Recommendation (LOR), and United States Clinical Experience (USCE). You will have to assess your own potential based on these factors. The vast majority of IMGs including myself, apply to anywhere between 100-200 programs. Again, keep in mind that there’s no general rule on the number of programs you need to apply to.

This is a breakdown of fees for applying to a medical residency in the US:

1. USMLE Transcript: $80

2. ERAS Token: $145

3. NRMP Registration: $85

4. Applying to programs: cost depends on number of programs as shown in the table below.

So you will end up paying $310 + the cost of applying to programs.

This cost depends on the number of programs you apply to as shown above. We have you covered with an ERAS Fee calculator. Just plug in the number of programs you're applying to and we'll take care of the rest.

You can also find the ERAS Fee Calculator here.

We hope this article and our calculator can help make more sense of the costs associated with applying to residency.

Let us know if you have any questions. Good luck!