Spring break + Finances check

Here in the US, we students are in the middle of spring break. Ah, finally, a chance to relax! Not so for MBA students who still have to land internships or full-time jobs; spring break is the time to apply and network as hard as you can while there are no classes to interfere!

It does go by so fast. I hadn't noticed that more than three quarters of the first year are over. Second-years are now starting to reminisce and savor the remaining days before graduation. I've spent the past few days reading books, watching movies and planning my itinerary for my spring break trip (plus working extra hours at my part-time job).

Now that there's a general lull in the atmosphere, it might be a good time to check how my actual finances are doing with respect to the MBA budget.

Summary: 93.5% of the budget has been accounted for, but this already includes rent for the three remaining months I have in school. Over the next three months, I still have to spend on food, books for the last quarter, and other personal expenses. Hopefully, there will be no emergency/urgent expenses coming. If all goes well, I'd end up with some savings that I can use for next year's budget.

1. Tuition - 69%. Wouldn't have managed this without my benefactor's generosity. As for next year, let's see how my internship savings will turn out.

2. Workshop fees - 0.8%. These were the workshops we took during orientation. One thing off next year's budget.

3. Health, insurance, tech, association fees - 4%. Mandatory fees that you won't get out of paying.

4. Books - 0.8%. One source of savings (allocation was around 2.5% of the total budget) but I had to be really resourceful for the cost to go down.

5. Rent - 11%. I could have managed this in a way that would give me more savings, but I chose to live in a more expensive location that would give me a greater assurance of security (especially since I had to work late sometimes). Also, this includes the rent payments I have to make for the rest of the schoolyear.

6. Food - 1.1%. Well, I am not eating as much as I used to due to stress and to lack of appetite due to stress. Also, I bring my lunchbox to school when I know there's no free pizza, and don't go out that much.

7. Travel - 2.5%. This includes transport and accommodation expenses to career fairs and career treks I've gone to, plus some personal trips I made last year.

8. Personal - 4.3%. Okay, now this is my catch-all for all other expenses ranging from clothes to movies to gadgets to appliances to trash bags to toiletries to shoes to souvenirs to pre-paid load to football tickets. It's kind of alarming how it's nearly four times more what I spend for food, but items that fall here are often one-time spends (Like clothes? Yeah, right).


Anyway, since I am an MBA student, I should be putting up a pie chart here and giving recommendations to myself on what costs to cut next year so that I'd end up in a better financial standing. But since I'm lazy and it's spring break, I won't. I've put this up so that other Filipinos who are planning to earn their MBA in the US have some idea on what expenses there would be in their first year. Granted, I don't have a car and make the most of the free transportation my school provides, but you can factor that in your budget, along with gas, insurance, tolls, etc.

I could probably paint a more accurate picture once the first year is over. But then I might find myself exerting too much effort on my internship that I'd be too tired to go through all the numbers again.

Top B-Schools for Scholarships

In case you missed it, here's the link to Bloomberg BusinessWeek's MBA rankings on scholarships:

Top B-Schools for Scholarships

As you probably know by now, when business schools tell you about their financial aid package, they don't necessarily mean free money. Loans usually form a large part of the (if not the entire) financial aid package. But the above link lists top schools that dole out fellowships and scholarships to their students.

A shortlist:
1. University of Notre Dame - Mendoza
2. Indiana University - Kelley
3. Stanford
4. Harvard
5. Cornell
6. UNC Chapel Hill - Kenan-Flagler
7. University of Virginia - Darden
8. UCLA - Anderson
9. University of Michigan - Ross 
10. MIT

In the University of Notre Dame, 65% of students receive scholarships, with an average amount of  $25K. That's a really good deal, considering that it covers nearly 60% of the tuition fee.

My Part-time Job

Image from  blogs.loc.gov (Library of Congress website)

I'm blessed to have landed a part-time job here in school. And not just any part-time job, but one that pays higher than the hourly minimum wage, which, I think, is around $7.25. My job as a graduate assistant at the library is one of the higher-paid student jobs on campus.

What do I do? I sit at the reference desk, answer calls and inquiries from visitors, make sure the printers are full of paper, respond to paper jams and out-of-toner incidents, help students when they encounter technical problems with their computers, and assist students and visitors in their research. The job helps me practice my verbal skills in a pretty safe setting. Last semester, I worked night shifts. Sometimes the library would be really busy; sometimes not. When the shift was quiet, I could then bring out my books or laptop, and study then and there.

Does it affect my studies negatively? Not really. If anything, it clears my mind of MBA stuff and provides me time away from my group. (Trust me, you can have too much time spent with your group and it takes a toll on group output.) Also, as mentioned above, I can study or polish my internship applications during the shift if I'm not doing anything. Last semester, I worked six hours a week at night. I chose night shifts because day shifts interfered with classes, group work and extra-curricular activities. One of these shifts ended at midnight, and the disadvantage of that was that I would often be sleepy in my 8 AM class next day. This semester, I'll be taking on an 8-hour weekly workload, but at least I don't have 8 AM classes. I also scheduled my work on the weekends. Another thing I'm grateful about with my job is that I can adjust my work schedule as needed -- I can give my shift to another grad assistant and sometimes take his/her shift in exchange. We tell our bosses our available times at the start of the semester. I have an MBA classmate who worked 11-hour weeks last semester, and will be doing 12-hour weeks this spring.

How did I get it? I checked the school job board before coming here, and applied before the start of classes. I didn't make the cut initially, so I'm really grateful that the bosses decided to increase the number of graduate assistants.

What's the trade-off? Less time for myself and less "social" time. As mentioned in previous posts, the MBA is a very intense program, and working adds to the stress. Instead of heading home and getting a nap, you're off to work right after grueling case discussions and classes. Sometimes, I only get to do homework once I get home from work. But since I'll be working weekends this semester, I can probably get some more "me" time on weekdays.

NOTE - The F1 visa allows visa-holders to work only on campus for at most 20 hours a week for the first year. Details here: USCIS portal.