ok - reading about all these costs made me take a potshot at Gmatt and Rhyme. Me included of course.

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This is a great one !!!!

My costs (converting everything in USD):
GMAT $250
Books $500
Applications (6 schools) $1300
Lost wages during months I took off work $40,000
Lost laptop (which got stolen while studying for gmat in the library) - $2900

holy crap - $44,950 ... Thats a LOT of money without a single admit to show for it.

Here is an interesting observation. I tried to calculate the opportunity cost of human productivity spent on the exhaustive selection process for MBA programs. If we use HBS as an example and round out the numbers:

Total applicants: 9000;
Assumed average time spent per application: 50 hrs (includes essay rewrites, recommender selection and support, research, app form, interviews, prep etc. Correct me if you think I should adjust the estimate);
Total hours spent on applications: 450,000;

That comes down to 225 work YEARS of human productivity lost (at 40 hours of work per week and 50 work weeks per year) or an opportunity cost of about 4.5 productive human lives of prime talent - every year. ( 20-40 yr-olds with established education and active careers). In cash, at an average of $30 per hour pre-mba salary that equals to $13,500,000 USD.

For just one school!

All of this doesn't even include Admissions committee time to review and interview candidates, direct preparation process costs, or time spent on GMAT study!

Considering this breakdown, what is the opportunity cost of the entire application process at the top 100 schools? Shouldn't there be a way to simplify the process? What about asking candidates to donate 50 hours of pro-bono / charity work per school instead? Or setting up a single standard application for all schools... with maybe one custom essay per school? Just food for thought
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as someone who makes her living doing financial counseling and trying to improve the day-to-day economics of low-income folks, it figures that I'd be cheap!

But I am also newer to all of this than you are - let the hotel costs add up as it gets to R2 interviewing season!

Rhyme, don't you get paid time off?

I've proabaly invested almost $30K so far, and that doesn't include application fees or interviews.

GMAT (x4): $1000
Kaplan: $1200
Books, CDROMs, other online materials: ~$1000
Initial school visits in 2004 and 2005: $5000 (x2)
Lost wages during vists: $15,000

Embarassing as it is... and its one of my cheaper suits actually.... I tend to buy Loro Piana mostly. Armani tends not to fit well on my frame. I also have a tendency to buy some pretty ridiculously priced shirts. Shoes too, but at least there I can blame my insanely big but insanely narrow feet. There's only two manufacturers that fit me well. Reebok, and Ferragamo. Doesn't leave much in terms of options. Ties are probably my most ridiculous splurge - but I stopped buying them years ago. Hermes mostly.

I'm also counting the month I took off work to study for my GMAT in that figure. Suppose I should have been clearer. For the record I don't make $300,000 a year

I've spent in the range of $3,000. It should have been $4,000, but my GMAT prep course forgot to charge my credit card.

Do any of you know if MBA expenses are tax deductible?

Who needs accountants when you've got a Free Tax Preparation guru on the board?

No, all those preparation costs aren't worth a damned thing on your tax return. (OK, MAYBE we could swing some part of it on the schedule A if your employer required you to get the MBA, or maybe if you're self-employed, but it would be a stretch. Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.)

If your spouse moves with you and can claim that the move is related to work (getting a new job), and you move a decent distance, you can claim the moving expense deduction.

You can claim your tuition and some fees paid on the Lifetime Learning Credit (form 8863), as long as you follow three rules:

1. The cost is necessary AND paid to the school (shows up on your tuition statement).

2. Expense is paid by cash or loans. Scholarship/grant/fellowship money won't count, obviously.

3. For those of you who are young enough: whoever claims your personal exemption gets to claim these credits. If your parents claim you, they get the credit, no matter who paid the expenses. If Grandma throws out $100k to pay for you, but you claim yourself on your return, then you get the credit. Sucks to be Grandma. But AWESOME to be you.

Need help with this? PM me after Jan 10.