How To Pay For Your MBA Degree

Adjustments Once you’re done filling out the information initially, it can be beneficial to make some adjustments just to see how that impacts your DTI and overall costs. For instance, perhaps you’ll want to live in a broom closet with three roommates and survive on free food from information sessions? Those estimates for your room and board may be a bit high, go ahead and shave it down.

Or maybe the opposite is true and after your fourth small group dinner of the week you enjoy coming home to a peaceful one-bedroom in a doorman building with a view. No way is that budget going to cover the lifestyle you’ve grown accustomed to while working – go ahead and bump that estimate up.

The point is, minor adjustments can make a big difference. Especially because we’re talking about borrowing money that you might be paying interest on for 15 years or more.

My Budget Experience

On the one hand, I was able to save some money on textbooks (read: renting cheap or not buying at all), which I would say is pretty consistent across MBA programs. On the other hand, I ended up spending a little bit more overall, driven primarily by once-in-a-lifetime experiences. To charge up to the summit of a volcano in Ecuador (what else would one do during spring break?), you probably are going to have to buy a bunch of gear that you’ve never needed because you aren’t Bear Grylls. Then there are the experiences that I never could have predicted – flying cross-country for a rugby tournament, hosting a mustachio bashio for 200, or a newfound interest in home-brewing coffee equipment – that didn’t quite make it into my initial budget.  You don’t need me to tell you that any budget estimate you make will be just that, an estimate, you might spend more, you might spend less. It’s helpful to come in with a plan and leave yourself a reasonable cushion.

Come in with a Plan

You’ve gotten into school and you’re going places. I recognize that it is tempting to say “I will just borrow what I need and worry about it later.” But you can really do yourself a favor by mapping it out and truly understanding how you’re spending your money and where that money is coming from. Fortunately, CommonBond has taken my tool and built a great interface for it – check it out: MBA Budget Calculator. You can even email yourself the results and come back to your unique scenario as you tweak your estimates. I hope this helps you plan and helps demystify the process of paying for business school. It did for me.

Rex Carazo recently finished his first year as an MBA at the Wharton School and previously worked in Business and Community Development at CommonBond, a student lending platform that provides a better student loan experience through lower rates, superior service, and a commitment to community. This is a follow up to his previous post, “I’m in… Now What? Paying For It”.