International student - hidden expenditures question

I think most important is the networking cost. The networking events are usually scheduled a week in advance. Hence, the students often have to book last minute flights and hotels, which adds a lot to the expense.
This might help as it highlights the networking costs details
https://www.mbacrystalball.com/blog/2016 ... duce-cost/

Welcome to GMAT Club!

Great job on saving your money and focusing on the important part of the MBA. However, you also want to have a bit of fun while at school - not often do we get a 2-year break from work, family, and other responsibilities. One can live cheaply for $1000/mo sharing an apartment or in a dorm room. There are pros and cons to both (separate long discussion). However, budgets can also be different. Here is what you should plan on and the ranges:

1. Laptop (if you don't have one) $1,000-2,000
2. Phone service ($40-$100 per month depending if you have your own phone or you want iPhoneX). Utilities such as internet, water, gas, power, will run you another $200/mo living on your own.
3. Insurance (probably included in the school estimate)
4. Car - if you are in LA or Texas or anywhere in the US except Chicago or New York, you will want to have a car. Even grocery shopping is challenging with bus/etc. Car insurance, gas, etc - this can be a range but assuming you buy a $13,000 vehicle, you should plan on $300-400 mo for insurance and gas. You can live without a car if you live on Campus, just then plan on taking uber and cabs everywhere.
5. Food/Drinks - this is a big range. I have had friends who were super cheap (myself included) and others who were used to a different lifestyle. If you drink, alcohol in bars and restaurants is very expensive. Beer is around $10 after tax and tip for the bartender and hard liquor is even more.
6. All prices in the US exclude sales Tax that tends to be 6-10% This applies to restaurants, cars, laptops, etc. Only a few items are excluded or if you buy online - hard to do with drinks.
7. School and personal trips - you will likely want to travel during the breaks - all of your friends will. There is an October break, Thanksgiving in Nov, Christmas, Winter break, and Spring break. That's a lot of trips and opportunities to spend money. Budget at least $500 for a trip. They can definitely get pricey. Many schools do have trips before/during school where everyone goes. Kellogg has a mystery trip - last year they went to Lithuania.
8. Stuff that you will need to live - plates, spoons, sheets, pillows - all that kind of stuff. Easily runs $500+. Keep in mind that apartments/houses in the US do not come with furniture but there is craigslist... which can get tricky getting a table or a bed if you don't have a car of your own
9. School books are super duper expensive and I don't feel schools do a good job of telling you just how badly expensive they are - plan to spend $600-1000 on books in your first semester until you wise up
10. Make sure all of your health and dental issues are handled before you arrive to the US. Get a driver's license if you don't have one and take some driving lessons - will be handy
11. Hopefully you will find a paid internship in the Summer - these are pretty common but some are still unpaid and may involve travel and additional rent
12. Traveling for interviews/recruiting/etc - this may be a weekend trip to NYC or a drive to a big city for a few interviews. Depends on the school.
13. Ideally - double your budget that the school recommends. If you come in only 50% above, you are doing great!


P.S. By the way, tomorrow we have a Youtube Live Webinar with Prodigy Financial - you may want to join in case you want to balance your cash/loan options
https://gmatclub.com/forum/6-steps-to-u ... 53043.html

Thank you very much bb. It was a very useful post.

Great analysis bb
I just wanted to have opinion on the ON campus jobs. If a student plans on getting a ON CAMPUS job like working in the admissions office or the library and earning the minimum $12 wage (Boston specific) to support his/her finances, wouldn't that come in handy? As per the current immigration laws, the international full time graduate students can work 20 hours per week.

12*20*4 => $960

Is it even feasible to pull off a part time job with the enervating MBA curriculum? Would you recommend that ?

Most poor international students have campus jobs during the first year. I got one during the second semester when I realized I was going to be very poor.

Many of the campus jobs allow for multi-tasking or doing your homework while you “work”. So it is not a bad idea per se. As an MBA student I was able to get some of the best and highly paid campus jobs ($20-30 per hour in today’s dollars) since I had work experience and was a lot more convincing than a 19-year old. There are also benefits - networking for example or gaining real work experience in some of these jobs (some worked at a library but I worked at the project management office and at the school events center).

Now, it comes as a double edged sword since you trade off your time that you could be using to better yourself, to study and research stock markets or recruit. I ended up quitting my job the end of the second year so I could focus on recruiting.

PS. You won’t keep the whole $12. There will be income taxes. Chances are you will come close however.

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