NASHVILLE, Tennessee, March 1, 2008 – From October to February, U.S. medical students embark on the arduous task of residency interviewing to determine their ultimate position in the profession. Fourth-year medical students can go on anywhere from five to forty interviews in one season, depending on the competitiveness of their specialty.

Unlike other professions, medical students largely pay the interview travel costs out of pocket. There are even special loans up to $10,000 to assist with travel costs. (Just what a medical student needs — more debt.)

In response, two Vanderbilt medical students created SmartMedTravel.com. The site features a comprehensive database of advice, itineraries and little-known budget-travel options specific to the hospitals and cities where students must travel. Ben Rosenbaum, 26, a neurosurgery applicant, and Randon Hall, 25, a pediatric applicant, have joined to help students save thousands of dollars in an interview season.

Their own frugality drove them to educate other students on the ins and outs of budget travel. Rosenbaum lives in a one-room apartment and is accustomed to sleeping in rental cars and $15 hostels on the eve of interviews. Hall is no stranger to the fifteen-hour Chinatown bus from Nashville to New York priced at a little less than a tank of gas. “We don’t expect students to go to the same extremes as us to save money,” Hall said, “but we want them to know that there may be a $3 train or an $11 rental car alternative to that $50 taxi we’ve seen too many people take.”

Rosenbaum said, “It’s not uncommon to hear students incurring anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 in travel costs during the interview season. Students are just too busy to spend hours searching for the very best deal; they are more concerned about just getting where they are supposed to be in a safe and timely manner.”

SmartMedTravel.com is a medical-student-created Web site dedicated to showing medical and pre-med students the cheapest travel options for every city that has a residency program or medical school. It is a comprehensive site filled with travel advice, personalized itineraries, as well as features that allow students to uniquely organize interviews and request to share hotels with other students.

Residency “Match Day” is March 20, 2008.

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If you’d like more information about SmartMedTravel.com, or to schedule an interview with Randon Hall and Ben Rosenbaum, please e-mail us at info@smartmedtravel.com

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