Actual Cost of Kellogg MBA
Category	Year 1	Year 2	Notes (If Any)
School Expenses
Tuition	US$ 68955	US$ 70334
School fees	US$ 3124	US$ 3186
Student orgs, club subscriptions, etc.	US$ 330	US$ 337
Study Materials (course packs)	US$ 1200	US$ 1224	Some courses have all HBR cases that you must buy
Books/Misc. (printing)	US$ 600	US$ 612	50$ as no one buys books with school library providing subscription to online versions; printing is free at Kellogg (unlimited B/W + Color)
Health Insurance	US$ 3856	US$ 3933
Attending networking events/conferences: Travel Expenses, Parking, Wine and Dine Expenses, Event Tickets, etc.	US$ 8108	US$ 8270	Includes EVERYTHING
Personal Laptop	US$ 1500	US$ 0
Any other school related expenses.	-	-
First Year Fee	US$ 1500
Travel
Commuting to School: Metro Expenses	US$ 1200	US$ 1224	Not needed as you live in Evanston!
Uber/Lyft/Car Pooling	US$ 5000	US$ 5100
Study Tours	US$ 1000	US$ 1000	GIM Trips: Only those who are enrolled in these courses need to pay for this
Leisure travel	US$ 3500	US$ 3500	Again, depending on the destination could be higher; discretionary
Room & Board
Housing Rent	US$ 19912	US$ 20310	Assuming baseline for 1 bedroom apt in mcmanus as studios are small; http://www.northwestern.edu/living/hous ... index.html ; add another 5-10% if you look at accommodation outside
Household items	US$ 1200	US$ 1224	You get fully furnished apartment in McManus; so not many appliances need to be bought
Utilities/TV	US$ 1200	US$ 1224
Groceries	US$ 7500	US$ 7650
Eating Out	US$ 2500	US$ 2550	Assuming 3X/week average for 4 quarters
Entertainment/Bars	US$ 2000	US$ 2040
Miscellaneous(dry cleaning/barber/etc)	US$ 1500	US$ 1530
Gym	US$ 780	US$ 796	This is for one of the most expensive gyms in Evanston
Insurance	US$ 300	US$ 306	Not many take out insurance; but assuming it here as a worst case
Healthcare
Personal Expenditure	US$ 1500	US$ 1500
Total Expenses	US$ 138265	US$ 137849
Actual MBA Cost	US$ 276114
MBA Budget Displayed on School’s Website	US$ 200434
Assumptions Assuming a 2% YoY 'g' for all items Students stay for all 4 quarters in Evanston

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Actual Cost of Olin MBA
Category	Year 1	Year 2	Notes
School Expenses
Tuition	US$ 53000	US$ 53000	Inclusive of fees
School fees
Student orgs, club subscriptions, etc.	US$ 0	US$ 0	No additional costs
Books/Study Materials	US$ 1000	US$ 1000	Approximate.. Could be higher or lower depending on the courses we opt for
Health Insurance	US$ 1200	US$ 1200
Attending networking events/conferences: Travel Expenses, Parking, Wine and Dine Expenses, Event Tickets, etc.	US$ 700	US$ 700	Approximate. Depends on which conferences we plan to attend
Personal Laptop	US$ 400	US$ 400
Any other school related expenses.	-	-
Travel
Commuting to School: Cab/Metro Charges.	US$ 0	US$ 0	Student travel pass for bus and train provided for free
Study Tours	-	-
Leisure travel	US$ 1200	US$ 1200	Assuming one short trip a year
Room & Board
Housing Rent	US$ 6000	US$ 6000	Considering living in a 2 bedroom shared with a roomate. Studio or 1 bedroom could cost around 30-40% more. This is in St. Louis - One of the cheapest cities in the US
Household items	US$ 300	-	A cheap mattress would be around $100. Other furniture items could be shared with roomate.
Utilities/TV	US$ 1200	US$ 1200
Groceries	US$ 2400	US$ 2400
Eating Out	US$ 1000	US$ 1000	Considering eating out once a week
Entertainment/Bars	US$ 1000	US$ 1000	Estimated figure
Miscellaneous(dry cleaning/barber/etc)	US$ 200	US$ 200	Student discounts can be availed at many places
Gym	US$ 0	US$ 0	The university usually has a good gym and is available for free to the students
Insurance
Healthcare			Fortunately, I did not incur any healthcare expenditures. But this can be expensive if incurred.
Personal Expenditure	US$ 1600	US$ 1600	Travelling to home country twice during the course of the two years
Total Expenses	US$ 71200	US$ 70900
Actual MBA Cost	US$ 142100
MBA Budget Displayed on School’s Website	US$ 122470

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Actual Cost of IMD MBA
Category	Year 1	Notes
School Expenses
Tuition	CHF 85000
School fees	-
Student orgs, club subscriptions, etc.	-
Books/Study Materials	-
Health Insurance	CHF 5000
Attending networking events/conferences: Travel Expenses, Parking, Wine and Dine Expenses, Event Tickets, etc.	CHF 1000
Personal Laptop	CHF 1000
Relocation	CHF 4000	To and from Switzerland
Travel
Commuting to School: Cab/Metro Charges.	CHF 1000	Year railway cards for family and cost of travel over the year
Study Tours	CHF 500
Leisure travel	CHF 4000
Room & Board
Housing Rent	CHF 20000
Household items	CHF 3000
Utilities/TV	-
Groceries	CHF 20000
Eating Out	CHF 3000
Entertainment/Bars	-
Miscellaneous(dry cleaning/barber/etc)	CHF 2000
Gym	-
Insurance	CHF 500	Housing insurance and other
Healthcare	-
Family expenditures	CHF 10000	Expenditures for clothes/ kids activities etc
Visa and other docs	CHF 2000
Actual MBA Cost	CHF 162000
MBA Budget Displayed on School’s Website	CHF 121000

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Actual Cost of an Columbia MBA

EDIT: I decided since I have some time to kill to update this post with my numbers from year 2. Again the same caveats from below apply. Overall the 2 years is very expensive but completely worth it! The first year covers 1 Aug 2013 - 31 Jul 2014, the second year covers 1 Aug 2014 - 31 May 2015. In most cases the earliest you'll start work would be 1 June so I consider May as part of the MBA related expenses, most people probably won't start until later but the summer is really up to you so I'm not counting it in my calculations.

For the headline number, total cost for 2 years = $263,506

So how much does an MBA at Columbia really cost? This was a big question for me when researching schools but one for which nobody seemed to have a good answer. Obviously everybody’s situation is different but it’s safe to say that the school budget is absurdly low. So I thought I would share my results from my first year, with a little help from Quicken and a lot of OCD.

Some notes up front. Orientation starts in mid-August so you’ll likely move in starting beginning of August so that is how I chose my starting date. Additionally I’m married with no kids. So my rent and grocery bills are higher than average but my bars and travel spending are lower so they probably balance out roughly. I didn't take any international trips or pre-MBA trips but did travel some inside the US during the first year. Second year I traveled on one international trip, still well below the MBA school norm.

Ok here are the numbers including a per month average for categories where it makes sense:

Category	Year 1	Per Month	Year 2	Per Month
Tuition	$ 60,720.00	N/A	$63,148.00	N/A
School Fees	$ 3,124.00	N/A	$2,642.00	N/A
Health Insurance	$ 3,149.00	N/A	$2,508.00	N/A
Agent Fee	$ 3,562.50	N/A	$ 0	N/A
Application Fees	$ 759.00	N/A	$ 0	N/A
Household items	$2,425.33	$202.11	$1,451.16	$145.12
Student Orgs	$714.61	$59.55	$772.77	$77.28
Rent	$ 28,500.00	$ 2,375.00	$ 23,750.00	$ 2,375.00
Metro Expenses	$1,635.50	$136.29	$1,112.60	$111.26
Groceries	$8,447.26	$703.94	$7,541.74	$754.17
Eating Out	$1,830.22	$152.52	$2,399.72	$239.97
Entertainment/Bars	$2,959.06	$246.59	$2,756.69	$275.67
Utilities/TV	$2,605.93	$217.16	$3,031.55	$303.16
Insurance	$1,866.77	$155.56	$2,104.28	$210.43
Healthcare	$1,401.81	$116.82	$1,234.98	$123.50
Miscellaneous(dry cleaning/barber/etc)	$1,451.82	$120.99	$2,697.10	$269.71
Gym	$1,719.93	$143.33	$3,316.96	$331.70
Travel	$8,107.56	N/A	$8,058.20	N/A
Total	$134,980.30	$4,628.86	$ 128,525.75	$5,216.97

Hopefully this will help folks get a starting point for a budget. As you can see I overshot the school’s estimate by about 35%.

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