How Much Does it Cost? Is it worth it?

[tehnoid]

I'm a Canadian student planning to apply to medicine in the UK, and I know that most universities will not offer spots without in person interviews. So I'm wondering how much money I'm going to have to save up for the interviews. (or if there are any options other than actually going to UK)

Also, given that the interviews don't guarantee anything, is it worth it to go to the interviews if you only get 1 or 2 and are probably a fringe candidate? If you're not at least 70% sure you're getting the spot, is it still worth 1000-2000 for the experience?

[mathy]

[...]

[giella]

If you are called for interview, you're not competing in the same pool as the British candidates. You'll have been selected out of all the international candidates who applied and you'll be competing for a small number of slots. Therefore they'll probably only be selecting certain candidates in whom they're seriously interested. They're expressing definite interest in your application and there's a good chance of you getting a place. But you can't be 70% sure of getting a place. All you know is that your chances if you pass up the interview are 0 and your chance of getting a place theoretically goes to 1 in 2 if you do. Chance they say no or chance they say yes. I know that's not very sound probability but it makes some kind of sense.
It may well be possible that your interviews occur at the same time. If you get one interview offer in November for instance, you could ask to postpone to the new year. You could then see if you could nudge all your interviews into a similar time slot. Most universities wait until March before giving out offers anyway and even if they don't your chance of getting a place doesn't go down the longer you wait. In case of the latter occuring, every interview slot has a certain number of places to offer to the candidates who show up, so the best candidates in that round of interviews get the places.