Calling all Foster Admitted Students: Class Of 2020 (2018 Intake)

Abhimahna, Thanks for setting this up. I guess as folks decide the next step is really the Welcome weekend on 2/1. My wife and I will be there as we really want to get a sense of the place, and meet some of the current students. I had planned to visit prior to applying but had to cancel at the last minute due to work related travel. We would also be checking the area in general and looking at apartments just to get a sense of what options we have in and around the Seattle/Redmond area.
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Hi, everybody, nice to meet all of you!!

Does anybody have information on health insurance costs for international students coming with families? I will be coming with wife and 6 month old baby. Are there family plans or something like that and how much can that cost at least approximately?

Second question is about housing - what could be the approximate cost of decent 2-bedroom housing within the walking distance fom campus? (or maybe it makes financial sense to take something further away from campus and drive?)

If any anybody has information on this from school ambassadors or other reliable sources, please share! thanks in advance!

My wife and I will be doing the same. This was the one school I didn't get a chance to visit because one way tickets were around 450 each at the time.

Are either of you dead set on Foster or will you have some difficult decisions to make soon?

Lol, looks like you all are married. Am I the only single here?
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Set on Foster, but not dead set gotta choose between full scholarships at Arizona State and Olin St Louis and clost to full scholarship at Foster. Mccombs decision is also coming up, but they don't have anything close to full-scholarships as far as i know.

Man you still got time until Fall 2018

Hey there! Not sure about health insurance but most schools actually have this info and even provide at least some coverage for a fee tacked on to your tuition bill.

For apartments, I was looking at a couple 1 bedroom places nearby that were around 1500 per month. Much more expensive than where I'm living currently but that's Seattle for you.

Yeah, I'm torn on UT. On the one hand, if I get in with scholarship, my bill will be miniscule; I live in Austin and would just commute from my house (plus in-state tuition). If they offer any money it'll become a tough choice. Plus, Cornell was an incredible trip for me and the culture was wonderful, and it has that big Ivy League name... But I'm not sure if it's best for my career goals.

And here I was thinking waiting for responses would be the last stressful part [FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY]

Hahah. I still got time until Fall 2020.
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Injineer, welcome to dilemma club Austin and McCombs are just as good for tech as Seattle and Foster, unless you want to get specifically into Amazon prod mgmt role (like i do), then you'd still have to go to Seattle for internship and post-mba job. so it really depends on your post-mba goals.
as for me, i will be making an excel table with all costs, and mapping it with school's relevance for my career goals which i will assign some kind of rankings of 0 to 10. this is a nerdy way of doing this but hopefully it will give full data for the best decision.

For Health Insurance, the UW link below has some information for International Students

https://www.washington.edu/ship/internat ... alth-plan/

On the second question about housing, I'm still looking into this just to get a sense of what the COL will be over the two years in case I get into UT/McCombs and have to compare. Like you, I am also looking for a 2 bedroom and my budget is also in the $1500-1800 range. I think at that price point, particularly towards the lower end there may be better options if you look east towards Redmond/Kirkland/Mercer Island etc but this is just based on my preliminary search from last night. I have a car so prefer driving and early morning commute of around 30-40 minutes is actually a lot less than what I'm doing at the moment (I live in the DC Metro area so am used to long commutes since I have to travel b/w DC/Northern Virginia and Baltimore quite often during rush hour). There are also quite affordable public transportation options to get into Seattle from these places.

If you can find 2 bedroom apartments at that price point in Seattle do let me know. I would suggest looking at Craigslist in addition to the regular apartment hunting sites (Zillow/Truilia/Apartmentfinder/HotPads etc).
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For me, dream job is PM or strategy at Microsoft. So Foster still has a big leg up I think. It will be an interesting few months coming up. If culture fit is great at Foster I think that will make all the difference for me.

thanks for this info, i ll let you know once i progress in my own research and get some useful insights. I also know 2 current students and 1 alum so they will definately shed some light on these questions. if its really 1.5-1.8k then its not that bad. my friend who goes to school in Cali pays 3k for a 3 bedroom place and its not a luxury place at all, just ok. its so good Seattle is not so overpriced (yet).

I never visited either McCombs or Foster, but i think they are very similar in their culture. Since i talked to over 50 students of different programs before i applied, i have a good base for comparison and I can definitely say that Foster and Mccombs people stood out from the crowd. not only in their friendlyness and support they gave me, but also very bright folks. they also said that they love school atmosphere and met some of their best friends in the program.

I like Foster a lot but will wait to hear back from McCombs to see whether I get in and if so whether it comes with any $$. Having visited McCombs a couple of times now, and having been admitted to it in 2013 and reaching out to current students at the time, I really really like the culture there and the much lower COL also helps. It also has a better record placing applicants with some of the employers I am targeting post MBA. McCombs also seems to be making a major push in more tightly integrating its Medicine, Public Health and Business Schools which fits right in with my background. It will be a very tough decision if I get in there but I think in the end ROI and how much debt I graduate with will be a very big part of my calculation since my wife and I are expecting our first child this coming summer.
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Am I the only one here from Seattle?

Posted from my mobile device

yes you are, so far which makes you even more valuable member of this discussion, so welcome!

As you saw from the thread, a lot of us are concerned with high rent costs in Seattle, and at least 2 of us will be looking for 2-brm apartments in family-friendly neighborhoods, so as a local i am sure you know something that none of us can find on the internet as outsiders so, any perspectives on affordable housing, districts or names of apartment complexes which are particularly good deals, would be greatly appreciated. i guess people here are interested in both walking distance and commuting alternatives, it really depends on the price difference and whether overall its worth it...thanks in advance for any info you might have!!!

and also, i found this option
https://www.hfs.washington.edu/housing/ ... #gsc.tab=0

do you guys think it makes sense to consider these? under 1000 for 2 brm sounds like a really nice deal, but i am not sure if its practically realistic to get one of these given the waiting times, and whether they are as good of a deal as presented. for example, they have no furniture, and maybe there are other small hidden details..

I looked at this last night as well and I think it is a very good deal which like you said will be a long shot since all graduate students from the UW Seattle campus can apply for the limited number of available units. If I decide to attend Foster, I will most certainly apply since the location is fairly good and and the cost extremely low. Most apartments in the US come without furniture which you can either buy or rent depending upon your budget. I would budget a month to two's rent for furniture which isn't that bad since you can sell it after two years.
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Yep, Ikea sounds much better than paying rent for not very new furniture. When i went to undergrad school in Pennsylvania (long time ago most houses and apts came with furniture, i wonder whether times have just changed since then or its just Pennsylvania which is strange