How much money did you save up prior to going to b school

Round 1 applicant for Class of 2021 here!

I saved ~1.5 years of tuition excluding expense, but I used it as a down payment for a house. I will take out a loan and hope that the rates for internationals are... decent

It is nice/good/smart to save as much as you can before you head over to BSchool. Being international can be tough due to salary parity and cost of living. What many don't know (myself included) is that the loan will not disburse until you start school, so if your orientation starts on Aug 25th, School starts on Sept 5th, and your land in the US on July 30th, there is a good chance your loan wont' disburse until the 5th (some lenders may release it on the 25th but still, that's a month on your own).

And before the school starts, is the time you will need $$$ to get security deposit, first and last months of rent on your apartment/etc - that can easily be $5K. If you have to get a phone, computer, car, housewares, and anything else that is expensive (e.g. books), you are looking into quite an amount to have available and accessible pre loan.

Plan well!

bb, Could you explain need of CAR ? What do you mean by housewares, and anything else that is expensive? School Library won't provide Books ? Just a curious question. Because in India at least premium Engineering schools/colleges give books to each student.

You won't need a car if you live in a university town. But that isn't the case at most universities.
If you go to Stanford or Berkeley for instance, you'd need a car to get around in the city because the public transport system in the bay area is bad.

Housewares: You know, groceries, utensils, Air Conditioners (if you don't live in a dorm and if your apartment doesn't have one).
Books: There will be books in the libraries that you can borrow for a limited amount of time but you won't have unlimited copies.
And no, they won't provide you with free copies of the books. And textbooks are quite expensive. A few of my engineering books costed me anywhere between $100 and $200 each.

I think MV23 gave a pretty good overview. Certain places will make your life extra hard without a car - Texas or California or other places. It is also a trade off as on campus living is often more expensive or unavailable so a car is needed or otherwise you will depend on a one-an-hour bus.

As to books, I spent $800 on books in the first semester in the US. They are not available in the library as far as I know and professors often push for latest editions of the books. It is quite a racket. And no, you don’t get free books.

So good luck trying to save $100 on GMAT Prep and screwing yourself only to have to shell out thousands for required books.

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LOL, it is so unfortunate that people will pay so much $$ in college fee and will still end up buying books for another $800-$1000. $800-1000 is huge amount for normal middle class family. Thanks for heads up. I will save as much as possible.