LBS vs INSEAD - Total Cost of Attendance

Question

Hi All,

I've been trying to calculate accurate total cost of attendance figures for the INSEAD (J Class) and LBS (15 / 18 month) MBA programs. Unfortunately, LBS doesn't seem to provide any guidance on living expenses and additional fees while attending the LBS program. INSEAD I'm estimating to be around US$140000.

Any current students / recent graduates out there - could you provide insight from your personal experiences? Also would be helpful to know approximately how much one can expect to earn back from the internship in LBS?

Thank you in advance!

bb · Answer

MV23  will be a great source!
I also asked one of my contacts at LBS.
Will let you know what I hear.

AA94 · Answer

Thank you! Please let me know once you find out

rtbs15 · Answer

Very rough numbers, but it should be OK (+-10%, I live in London).

Expenses - £19.9K to £25.2k per annum

PCM
- £850-1250 flatshare (living around Marylebone is ££££!, West of Baker Street/Lisson Grove might be a tiny bit cheaper)
- £600 for meals/entertainment, assuming lunch at LBS is subsidized or something
PA
- £1000 on course materials, etc? 
- £1500/£2000 on travel

Income - Highly variable but let's assume you get a 3 month internship in MBB (Salary £85k, 3 months work -20% tax) net c.£17k, assuming no auto enrolment for pension contributions, etc.

Hope it helps!

AA94 · Answer

This is so helpful! Exactly the kind of insight I was hoping for, thank you so much, and best of luck with your program

bb · Answer

Here is what I heard:

- Housing is roughly $2,000/mo for a 1-person apartment
- Bad location would be $1,600
- Cost of living in London is high and ironically travelling anywhere else is cheaper than spending time in London (sans rent of course)
- Everything is convenient. While LBS may be cheaper in tuition than some of the US programs, the living expenses create an equivalent cost at the end of the day.

AA94 · Answer

bb  - very helpful, thank you for following up. Looks like housing plus living expenses easily top $2500 - definitely quite steep.

bb · Answer

You can save money living together. The person I talked to did not (despite my pressure) disclose how much they spend on things other than rent (I think they were a bit emberrassed maybe)? I would guess they spend a lot on going out and eating out. You can definitely spend less but I would say it will be expensive... we have a few budgets for business schools floating out there but in addition to Top Ramen and other "student" food, you have social things/events, coffee chats, travel around the city, travel in Europe and UK with classmates and for recruiting (the recruiting part of the travel has stopped but not the leisure from what I hear).

As a point of reference, many schools in the US have Treks such as Tech, Finance, etc and it is basically going on the road for a week visiting a bunch of companies in a certain area (e.g. west coast or New York). it can easily be $3-5K for just one week and it is tough to choose not to go since you may miss out on an internship and it would be a good time to bond with your classmates/etc. There is a lot of pressure to spend money in business school.

rtbs15 · Answer

I can help with expenditures other than rent if it helps, I just didn't use it as you'll be a student so I presume you'll hang at cheaper places!

- Dinner/brunch out 4x/week = 200. This is a nice restaurant sharing a wine, but you can def eat out for £25, and most probably you will eat out at cheaper places. 
- Pint session 3x/week = 60
- Supermarket spend/week = 60
- Lunch 5x/week out = 50. I don't know about LBS, but lunch at INSEAD was subsidized so that could be much cheaper.

370/week * 4.33 = 1602/Month 
I'd def flatshare, studios and 1 beds in Marylebone and thereabouts can be pretty crap in terms of space/natural light. As said before, £1250 will allow you to share a nice flat with 1/2 more people.

Please feel free to DM if you have any specific Qs.

Good luck.

AA94 · Answer

bb and rtbs15 , thank you so much for following up. This provides a good level of clarity - rent is something I can look around for but living expenses were the big variable for me. Appreciate it guys

LBS vs INSEAD - Total Cost of Attendance

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