The Cost of Volunteering

Life is full of opportunity costs, both obvious and hidden. Joining the Peace Corps brings a slew of blanket decisions that you'll need to weigh. Hopefully, this post will help you ID some of them.

The tangible:
Loss of income for 27 months. Even if you work a minimum wage job, you'll be losing 27 months worth of income. Since most PCVs are recently out of college this means delaying financial independence by at least that long and having to deal with a little over two years worth of loan interest.
While this sounds a bit frightening the potential upside outweighs the cost. Depending on your choice of career, the NCE and/or the experience can directly lead you to a better job or even a career. If you don't believe this would apply to you it at least is something that would stand out on a resume.

The medical clearance process.  Even with good health insurance, this can be very costly. Without it, it could realistically price out many would-be volunteers. Fortunately, I've had no real medical problems or additional paperwork apart from eye exams since I wear glasses. Depending on your health history you may have much more tasks than average. Since this process is fairly in-depth, I will be doing a separate post dedicated to the medical clearance process.
Healthcare costs are rarely cheap and the Peace Corps will make sure you are fit in every way possible prior to clearing you for service. For instance, many countries require a Yellow Fever vaccine. The Peace Corps subsidizes this cost by refunding up to $150 dollars. However, In my case as with other volunteers, these vaccines can only be obtained at limited travel clinics thus raising the price due to lack of competition. Even with the refund, I paid roughly thirty dollars out of pocket. Another potentially costly procedure(s) is the blood test. Along with a set of routine blood exams you should get every year during your physical, the Peace Corps may ask that you obtain specific depending on where you will be going. A blood test can be very expensive. In my case, the pre-insurance total was around $2,500, post insurance its around $500.
The benefit to this process is you will find out if you're healthy or not. Most of the required tasks are exams and procedures you will most likely be having within a year. The cost is only really felt due to the short window of time you have to complete the tasks.

The intangible:

This should vary from person-to-person. Below you will find what I've been told by volunteers who are currently serving. I hope to eventually update this with my first-hand experience.

Separation from family and friends. This shouldn't come as a shock since you know that joining the Peace Corps means leaving the United States for 27 moths. Yet knowing this and living it are difficult. I as other have experienced a taste of this when leaving for college. While many of the modern day conveniences mean never being too far away from family and old friends, this most likely won't be my case in Togo.




Did I miss any? Let me know.

Application Timeline

Each applicant may face different timelines. However, for those that are interested below, you will find my timeline.

Finished application:                                       July 23, 2016

Placed under consideration for Togo:               July 27, 2016

Interview request (Togo, EGE)                         August 02. 2016

Interview                                                        August 17, 2016

Invitation                                                         August 19, 2016

Sent in legal kit                                               August  29, 2016

Legal clearance granted                                  Janurary 10, 2017

Medical clearance                                           March 15, 2017

Total time start to finish:                                     10 Months