How to Save $5,000 On Your MBA Tuition

Just go to school in California as a resident.

I don’t think they’ve finalized the actual residential discount, but I’ve heard that it will be at least $5,000. The process of proving your residency in California is a bit cumbersome. The registration office sent me a list of required documents, based off of the information I had submitted before:

Driver’s license
Vehicle registration
Year old rental lease
2010 Tax Return
2009 Tax Return
2010 W2’s
2009 W2’s
Latest Pay Stub
Confirmation letter from payroll manager
Bank Statement with CA address

It took me about 2.5 hours to find, compile, scan, and print everything; at the end I had over 30 pages of documentation to submit. And to top it off, they gave us a tiny yellow envelope to mail everything back.

My experience with UCLA’s Grad School administrative office hasn’t been great thus far. First off, I never received an email from the graduate division with links to fill out my Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) and Statement of Legal Residency SLR). I figured out online how to complete these tasks because I needed them to apply for housing. Secondly, the curriculum has not been finalized yet and, therefore, the waiver requirements for each course have not been distributed. I’m pretty sure I can test of introductory Accounting and Finance, and maybe take a more difficult course, but having been away from the core material for years, I’d definitely need some review first.

Anyway, I guess it’s still pretty early in the year. Hopefully things will get better.

This post is adapted from Random Wok, a blog written by Mark Wong from Silicon Valley. You can read all of his posts at Random Wok.

Selected posts by Wong at PoetsandQuants:

Why I Want an MBA

Climbing the GMAT Mountain: 630 to 710 on a Practice Test

Do Consultants Have An Unfair Edge Over Other Applicants?

Falling Behind & Stressed Out

My New Critical Reasoning Strategy

Figuring Out My Odds of Getting Into Harvard, Stanford, Wharton

With My GMAT Classes Over, It’s Now Just Me and the Test

Making a GMAT Test Taker Feel Like A Complete Pansy

With a Month to Go Before His GMAT Test, It’s Time to Focus