Before I started my MBA at Wharton, I had always heard that you're going to be spending over $200,000 across four semesters and two years at your MBA program.
And I was always like, how are people spending so much money?
And today I want to share with you exactly how all of that money is being spent because I spent that money for this video.
I literally went through all of my credit card statements and categorized all my expenses line by line from August 5th, 2022, which is when I came to school in Philadelphia to December 15th,
which is when I left for winter break, so in total, 4.5 months.
And so looking at today's agenda, I'll first be going over all the key categories I spent on, and then I'll show you the totals on a per month basis.
For these categories, I'm going to be starting from the one where I spent the least to the most, and let's start off with the first one, which is self care.
This category included things like dry cleaning, haircuts, therapy sessions, and hospital co-pay, which all amounted to $962 during the semester.
For self care spending during the MBA, I would say things like haircuts and dry cleaning are pretty expected.
Therapy, of course, is optional. I just started going during a really stressful period of my life a few years back, and it's been hugely beneficial to my mental health ever since then.
And so that's why I just keep on going.
Then for hospital co-pay, I haven't been to the doctor in a really long time.
I've kind of been neglecting my health and Penn has a really great medical program and health care.
And so that's why I just decided to take advantage of my health insurance.
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Next, let's go into how much I spent on social activities, which by the way does not include food and travel because those are their own categories.
This category includes things like friend hosted events, concert tickets and Wharton club dues and events, which all amounted to $1,571 during the semester.
Of these, I would say the Wharton club dues and events really sneak up on you.
There are over 100 clubs at Wharton and on average they cost around $20 to $50 to join for one year.
And here are the ones I joined to give you an example.
Each Wharton event also costs anywhere from $40 to $100 and there's usually two to three going on every single week.
So these costs also really add up over time.
Next up, let's talk about food, which in retrospect is something I splurged a lot on this past semester.
This category includes alcohol, groceries and eating out, which all amounted to $3,748.
You may have heard that MBAs like to party, so you might be surprised that alcohol was a relatively low expense because if you buy even just one round at a bar that could easily be $50 to $100.
The reason it's so low is that most events actually have alcohol and food costs embedded in the ticket prices, so I didn't actually find myself buying much alcohol.
For food, I spent a decent amount during my travels and then I did also order a lot on DoorDash, which usually has higher prices and delivery fees.
And I did so because usually my schedules were just so jam-packed, I just needed to get food ASAP.
Next, let's go into travel, which is a huge variable expense for MBA students.
For this category, I spent on buses for two trips to New York, for my metro card for buses to get around Philly,
Airbnb's and hotels for trips with classmates, and then on Uber's and flights for traveling,
which included one LA trip and two trips to Korea and this all amounted to $5,639.
I had a pretty abnormal semester in that I had to miss class for four to five weeks because of a personal reason and so I had to fly out to Korea twice.
I wouldn't say it's really normal to fly internationally two times during the semester, but it is normal to go at least once.
Usually during Thanksgiving break, a lot of the class for at war 10 at least goes to Columbia or they decide to go somewhere else like Europe.
There are also a lot of weekend trips to places like Cabo, Cancun, Canada and the West Coast.
And because I missed so much school, I didn't go on a lot of those.
And so while I did probably spend a little bit more than the average first semester student at war 10,
I would say that the amount that I spent is not egregious or way over what other people spent.
Next, let's talk about my rent, which I would say is a bit abnormal.
For this category, I included home supplies in here and also utilities and the cost of rent,
which all came out to $15,373 this semester.
So for most of my classmates, rent is anywhere from $1,500 to around $2,300 a month.
I did splurge on my apartment, which is $3,125 a month.
And I did so for two reasons.
The first reason is more practical, which is that I work in my apartment and so it's partially an office.
And so I'm able to get tax deductions from it, which kind of lowers my rent of what I'm really spending because it lowers my taxable income.
The second reason is simply that business is going well.
And you know, I've been an entrepreneur now for the past four years.
And for the first three years, I lived with my parents and I always told myself that when I moved out and if I was able to afford it,
I would get a really sick place that I really liked.
And you know, I really love my apartment so much and I get a lot of positive energy from just being here.
I love working in this environment.
I just love the apartment overall in general.
And so this is kind of my reward for working really hard over these past four years and finally being able to kind of be in my own space and design it how I want to.
Moving forward though, let's talk about the next category, which is the granddaddy of Amal, tuition.
Tuition includes a bunch of fees, an MBA preterm fee, which is only for first years, health insurance,
lottery tuition, which is the cost for my dual degree in international studies that I'm getting with my MBA,
the actual Wharton MBA tuition, and this all amounts to $53,552.
But I also do get a $15,000 scholarship every semester.
So that makes my actual spend $38,552.
Now those numbers are pretty self-explanatory, so I won't really go into them too much.
But I will say that I was surprised a bit about the miscellaneous fees because all of them kind of add up to at least a few thousand dollars.
And so if you're applying to business school and you're interested and you're trying to figure out your budget or how much you're going to need to pay,
all the schools do list out all these different kind of fees on their websites.
So I would highly recommend going into your school's website and figuring out what the true cost of tuition is because it's something that kind of caught me a little bit off guard.
Alright, now next let me show you guys the totals and everything on a per month basis.
Here you can see the total amount that I spent on each category and everything is divided also by 4.5 months since that's how long the fall semester was.
And I would say of these, the food and travel costs were really, really bumpy and can increase a lot or really be small in any given month.
Self-care, social and rent tend to all be pretty consistent each month.
And then tuition is something you pay all at once at the start of the semester with most students like myself taking out loans.
I do think my spending is a bit higher than most classmates because of my dual degree and rent and also because I'm working during the semester.
So I'm fortunate to have a disposable income.
So I've also created more quote unquote normal semester budget, which includes $100 a month spent on self-care, $200 on social activities, $600 on food or $20 a day,
then a $3,000 travel budget in total, $2,000 a month on rent including utilities, and $45,452 on tuition without the dual degree and no scholarship.
And this all comes out to $61,502.
Now of course if you get a scholarship then your costs come down a ton.
But I would say in general you can expect to spend anywhere from $60,000 to $70,000 all in each semester during your MBA, which costs in total anywhere from $240,000 to $280,000 during the two years because there are four semesters.
Now I'm sure a lot of you guys are wondering is the MBA worth it?
Is it worth all of that money?
And I would say it's really on a case by case basis.
My situation is really unique.
I look at all these costs and I already probably would have spent all that money on self-care, travel, food, even without the MBA.
And then so my real costs that I consider for my MBA is just the tuition, which is around $40,000 a month for me.
So in total over the next two years it'd be $160,000.
Right?
Still a lot of money, but I'm able to work while I'm getting my MBA and I have a lot of plans on how I'm going to be able to build businesses, create content that eventually is going to net me.
A positive ROI with this investment.
And so we'll see how things go in the future.
And I'm going to kind of explain more of my more details about all these plans that I have in the future.
But those will be for a later video.
Now, speaking more generally, I would say that if your MBA can really help accelerate your income, then it is practically much, much more worth it.
So for example, a lot of people are making something like 70 to 100k a year.
And then you can get an MBA, go into something like consulting or investment banking, and your income just jumps to something like 200 to 400k a year.
And so you're easily able to pay off your loans within a matter of years post graduation and you're able to really, really accelerate your income.
So that's where that's the case for where the MBA is really, really worth it and gives a very positive ROI.
Now, I'm going to be going over all of this in more detail in a future video.
But before I let you go, I wanted to let you know that I'm giving away 50% discounts for my how to get into MBA course, which I've been working super, super hard on.
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I'm also selling the MBA application that I submitted that got me into Wharton and Columbia at RareLiquidCareers.com.
And lastly, I'm starting my own personal newsletter, which is really just me wanting to connect with people,
sharing things that I learned in classes or a quote that I came across or a really, really good podcast that I listened to and some of the lessons I learned.
I just wanted to kind of connect more with all of you guys.
And so if you're interested in that, I'll also leave a link to that in the description as well.
With that said, thank you all so much for watching.
Hope to catch you all in the next video.
Thanks so much and peace out.