Over the years you and your parents have spent a lot of money to get you to where you are right now, so it’s not surprising that you and most other premeds are willing to spend a little bit of money to get help with the toughest challenges in medical school admissions. Here’s why.

You ask your on-campus premed adviser for help and they give you a few instructional hand-outs and some encouraging words without going into helpful specifics.

You ask your friends for advice, but they aren’t very familiar with the admissions process so their advice doesn’t really help.

Then Mom and Dad suggest you speak with their coworker/tennis partner, but their son went to medical school in 1995. Not the most useful advice.

After you’ve gone through all of the normal avenues and you still feel like there might be one or two major weaknesses in your application that will prevent you from getting accepted, you decide to pay for some extra medical school admissions help. But there’s one problem: The cost.

“I just want to find out if I can get accepted. Why does that cost so much?”

At the root of just every medical school admissions question lies the ultimate concern: “What are my chances? Am I competitive enough to get accepted?” That’s the question that drives you to research GPA concerns, letter of recommendation tips, MCAT score-boosting courses, and AMCAS tips. You want to know how you can boost your chances and stand out in a field of very competitive applicants.

But the high-priced medical school admissions consultants you find online want hundreds, or even thousands of dollars just to answer your simple question: “Can you take a look at my candidacy and tell me if I have a shot? And if my chances are low, what can I do to improve them?”

Affordable answers: How to find out your chances

Before you or your parents shell out serious cash to get the answers to your questions, consider the best affordable alternatives:

• Visit an online forum like StudentDoctor.net. Lots of current and former premeds contribute to online forums, but beware: Trolls and forum jerks might advise you to stuff yourself into the ‘typical premed’ mold in the least friendly and supportive way possible.
• Take an online assessment. I made a free online medical school admissions assessment that I designed using my 20 years of admissions expertise. It takes into account the 8 most important factors that affect your chances and tells you how strong your chances are.

Paid medical school admissions consulting is usually only necessary in very special circumstances, so consider alternatives like my admissions assessment or online admissions courses before you pay for one-on-one help you may not need.