AMSA

American Medical Student Association (AMSA) has been established for a long time. I remember running by Premed-AMSA student group on campus. The only vivid memory I had is that they require you to pay money before you can join. Being a broke college student that I was, I never did.

Well, now I've just joined AMSA as a medical student. I guess AMSA isn't so bad based on 1 day of being a member. They aren't just out there to take your money. They do a lot of collaborative projects with other medical schools in the U.S. and across the globe. You can get special discount on credit cards, hotel rentals, and other offers. One reason I joined AMSA is because of their IFMSA international medical student exchange program. If you'd like to travel abroad cheap, IFMSA is a great program. It matches up you with another fellow medical student from other countries and you get to do research abroad for 1 month, 2 months, or longer. The program application fee is barely over $200, which is considerably very cheap compared to medical schools' international programs which could be as expensive as $3000-$5000. I will keep on investigating what AMSA has to offer, to find out if $75 I spent for membership for 4 years of med school is money well spent.