Scholarship

Very, very few students will receive scholarships that cover the full cost of attendance (tuition + living expenses). You should plan on using loans, savings or other financial means as well as any scholarships you receive.

Jerz, how much saving should be enough in addition to scholarships? Saying that I will be with my wife.

I'm expecting to spend $160-190,000 for tuition and living expense. And this is for schools in NY and Chicago. The cost would probably go down a bit if I was applying to schools that aren't in big expensive cities.

And quite frankly, I am not anticipating any scholarships. I'll have to fund most all of it through loans (federal, private, and family)

Check out poetsandquants.com. It has lots of information on living expenses during your MBA

It's nearly impossible to answer that question, since so much depends on which school you go to, how generous their scholarships are, how well you qualify for scholarships, cost of living in the city the school is in, etc. MDF's estimate of $160,000-$190,000 is probably a bit on the high end for Chicago but not unreasonable. But then I have friends at Fuqua who pay 1/3 what I did in rent so their total costs are going to be much less. Each school publishes estimates of total cost of attendance, which includes estimated living costs based on what students tell the financial aid office they spend. You should look at those to get a better idea what the school will cost. As for how much to expect to borrow, going into it you shouldn't plan on using scholarships since it's so hard to say whether any scholarship money will be coming. Rather, plan on financing the whole amount through loans and savings, then any scholarships you do get are a bonus and can reduce the amount you borrow.

Thanks so much for asking that question about scholarships. I think that you will want to make sure that you take the scholarship question really seriously. I know from experience at Wharton that many people are exhausted after actually applying that they "throw darts at" the scholarship essay just to see what may happen. To me, its just as important as the rest of the application and should be planned accordingly.