Flying to the US? What about ur Pre-Departure Expenses? :)
I think this post will be useful for those especially all those who have just started there GRE study or thinking of doing the same. For those who have just started GRE studies and are thinking that’s it’s the most difficult thing. Let me tell you giving GRE exam is a cakewalk as compared to the hectic schedule succeeding it. I was thinking of the expenses which a friend of mine made before flying to the US. Here is a summary of expenses which generally happen till the time we reach our final destination. I am approximately converting $ to rupees and I am giving expenses in rupees so that it hurts more :P
1) Joining Consultancy(never do this)
Joining a consultancy will cost u up to 25000rs and browsing a site like EDULIX will cost you 500(internet cost). You will get all the information here which the consultancy is going to give you in much better quality ever. It depends on you. Save this money you have to spend a lot. Just read below.
2) Booking dates for exam:
GRE exam – 8500/-
TOFEL exam- 6500/-
*provided you are satisfied in your first attempt
3) Selecting and applying to universities:
We need to purchase the application form of a particular university first. This application fee for each university’s varies from 30$ to 100$. On an average, a university application costs 65$. Most of the students apply to 8 universities (2-ambi, 3 –mod, 3-safe again this may vary depends on the student) so approximately the cost of all the applications to the universities will cost 65$*8= 520$= 24440 Rs(approx.) rounding it to 25000 Rs.
4) Preparing documents i.e. transcripts SOP and LOR:
This cost may vary a lot. Depends on the college. Generally each college takes up 500rs for each set of transcripts. We have to 2 sets of transcripts to each university. So the total expenses comes up to be 1000*8= 8000 Rs. The printing of this transcripts, sop and LOR on this Bond paper cost up to 500 Rs.
5) Sending Documents to the universities:
As we require to send the documents by mail. The cheapest service available will cost you 500 Rs for each shipment. So 700*8 = 5600 Rs. You may have to pay 30-50 $ for ordering I-20 by expedite services if you need it immediately.
6) Sending scores to universities:
Since we have to send scores to universities each GRE score report will cost 23$ and TOFEL score report will cost 17$. Here we can save lot of money if we choose the option wisely and apply to the universities which we desire at the time of exam. So taking 5 university expenses for the score sending requirement.
23*5 = 115$ = 5400 Rs
17*5 = 85$ = 4000 Rs.
7) Application for VISA:
Visa Fees: - 140$= 6700Rs.
SEVIS Fees: - 200$= 9500Rs.
8) Booking Flight:
This may vary from 35000 to 50000 Rs. depending on the location and the flight.
9) Miscellaneous:
This includes the pre-departure shopping list, immunizations etc which easily pile up to 50000Rs.
Total expenses: - varies from 130000Rs. - 160000Rs.
This is just a beginning the real expenses are yet to come. The University Fees, Surviving in US etc. But then again..that is a totally different story altogether :D
Cheers,
Karthik Venkatachalapathi