How much money did you spend on your graduate school applications?

[Bonkers]

Grad school apps total:

(1) Approx. $100 X 15= 1500 (yep, 15 schools is overkill)

(2) Undergrad transcripts $6 X 13= $78

(3) GRE scores $25(?) X 11= $275

=$1853

Yikes.

[amanda lauren]

55% of medical school applicants get rejected from every single medical school they apply to so it is normal if your friend gets rejected from all 18 medical schools. If she is no longer a friend to you, it must mean that she did something bad. In your opinion, do you think it may have been a bad personality that got her rejected?

Actually, I do! She was a VERY egotistical and judgmental person, and she tended to hold others to impossible standards that even she couldn't meet. Her personal statement for med schools was along the lines of "I went to college not knowing what I wanted to do, took a bio class as a core requirement, and realized I kind of liked it, so I want to go to med school." An actual quote from her essay: "As I worked in my biology lab that semester, I realized that this wasn't as hard as I had always thought it would be - I could do this, and I was actually good at it. In the end, biology was not as difficult as I had anticipated, and taking that course proved to me that I could master the material and excel in the sciences." Nothing like telling the admissions committee that their field is simple! At least her essay flowed nicely, from the beginning about how she mastered her Bio101 class to the end in which she discusses how she will surely master medical school. If anyone needs a hint of what NOT to write about, this is definitely exhibit A!

[elunia]

Don't forget to factor in visits to programs. If you go before apps are due, they will most likely not reimburse you for travel, but if they invite you to visit you should consider going. Most of my interview/accepted student visits were reimbursed.

In the end I spent around $1000 as well, between app fees (to 9 schools), ordering GRE scores, and travel.

[Behavioral]

$250 GMAT

Around $1000 applying to 10 schools + sending out transcripts/test scores

Around $2000 flying to 5 schools, though THIS was luckily reimbursed afterwards.

[frenzydude]

About 2000$ for 11 applications. Will get it back in the first month's graduate stipend.

Edited April 3, 2011 by frenzydude

[Ludwig von Dracula]

What does CAD mean?

Canadian dollars.

[tkovach05]

Fortunately I took what someone else referred to as the "sniper approach" (which is, albeit, riskier), so I only applied to 3 schools. I was going to apply for a 4th but ended up deciding otherwise.

GRE + prep book: $165

Application Fees: $75 (NYU) + $50 (The New School) = $125 (American waived my fee since I did AmeriCorps)

Transcripts: 4 x $5 = $20

Postage Costs: $6.75 (includes 4 stamps & packet of thank you cards for recommenders)

Travel to Schools: Tough to say; I visited American during a previously-scheduled trip to DC. But I did take a trip up to NYC that weekend, so that's $98 for train tickets + $30 or so for expenses = $128

Total: $444.75 (I know that's a lot less than many of you, but still, geeze).

Thankfully I asked for cash for Christmas.

Edited April 18, 2011 by tkovach05

[Owlie]

I didn't add everything up until now, but I think I spent just under $600 in application fees, transcripts, 2 GRE exams+sending scores. Then add the suit and other stuff for interviews since I didn't have one, then travel expenses...Not as much as some of you paid, but yikes!

I did take a trip to visit one school way before the interview, but that's because I was visiting my boyfriend's family in the same state, and it was only two hours away.

[alexpap]

2100$. A lot of applications, express mails, transcripts to be translated. I hope that I will be able to return this money to my parents soon.

[bdeck]

I applied to 13 programs, because Phd in clinical psych is tremendously competitive (approx. 3% acceptance rate at the lesser competitive schools). With GRE scores =$216, taking the GRE (took it twice) = $450ish, GRE subject test= $200, average application cost is about $100  for each school. So quick math here say about $2,166. Obviously this is a product of how competitive grad school in Psych has recently become. Also this doesn't take into account the schools with which I will need to fly to for interviews, granted I get some of course.

 

Schools applying to:

BU, UCONN, Yale, Drexel, WashU, Fordham, Penn State, UToronto, McGill, Kent State, UI-Urbana Champaign, UI Chicago.

 

Hope this helps!

[speechfan222]

Too dang much, that's for sure. A range of $35, 50, or 75 per application fee, $25 to send GRE scores for each, and $10 to send undergrad transcripts. I've only submitted 4 applications so far, but I'm working on more.

I think the application fees are ridiculous. We're going to pay plenty of money for tuition (and other fees required with tuition costs), why in the world do we need to pay to have somebody read our application? I know the GRE scores need to be official and sent from the testing company, but why do they charge $25 per institution when they know students are applying to several at a time? We paid enough to take the test, don't charge $25 just to send my scores.

Alright. I'm done venting. The fees are just ridiculous. I think they should be waived for everyone. :o)

[Butterfly_effect]

Applied to 7 schools, went on 6 interviews, spent just over $500 (two schools I deliberately chose because they had waivers available for low-income students). I bought an $8 set of vocabulary word flash cards for the GRE and only took the test once. The rest of the prep I used I found online at the GRE and other websites (there are free practice tests available). 

I would suggest looking into whether schools offer waivers (google <school name> graduate school waivers) and if you know where you're applying, I think you can specify a few schools to send scores to when you take the GRE and its factored into the cost of the initial test (?). Of course additional score reports cost more. 

[bhr]

On 10/28/2016 at 11:38 AM, speechfan222 said:

I think the application fees are ridiculous. We're going to pay plenty of money for tuition (and other fees required with tuition costs), why in the world do we need to pay to have somebody read our application? I know the GRE scores need to be official and sent from the testing company, but why do they charge $25 per institution when they know students are applying to several at a time? We paid enough to take the test, don't charge $25 just to send my scores.

 

I'm completely ok with application fees. Can you imagine the number of applications a program like, say, Harvard English, would get if they were free to apply? All those people who would send one in "just for the hell of it?"  They aren't particularly onerous, and getting an income-based fee waiver is possible at most places.

I do have a problem with the GRE fees, but that's a personal thing. GRE scores and transcripts should be accepted unofficially, with the official ones only needing to be sent after acceptance (or even for final round selection, if a program really wants to make sure).

[TakeruK]

51 minutes ago, bhr said:

I'm completely ok with application fees. Can you imagine the number of applications a program like, say, Harvard English, would get if they were free to apply? All those people who would send one in "just for the hell of it?"  They aren't particularly onerous, and getting an income-based fee waiver is possible at most places.

I do have a problem with the GRE fees, but that's a personal thing. GRE scores and transcripts should be accepted unofficially, with the official ones only needing to be sent after acceptance (or even for final round selection, if a program really wants to make sure).

I agree with this, especially with the fee being a barrier against "just for the hell of it" applications. My concern would be that I wouldn't want someone qualified to be denied a chance to even apply because of the fee. I think many schools can do a much better job of advertising fee waivers (but it's tricky because if you advertise it too widely then it backfires). In the ideal world, I would have the application fee go towards paying for whatever third-party company charges to maintain the application system and then have the remaining amount fund fee waivers for other applicants.

[speechfan222]

4 hours ago, bhr said:

I'm completely ok with application fees. Can you imagine the number of applications a program like, say, Harvard English, would get if they were free to apply? All those people who would send one in "just for the hell of it?"  They aren't particularly onerous, and getting an income-based fee waiver is possible at most places.

I do have a problem with the GRE fees, but that's a personal thing. GRE scores and transcripts should be accepted unofficially, with the official ones only needing to be sent after acceptance (or even for final round selection, if a program really wants to make sure).

That's definitely true. I didn't think of that. I was only thinking about all of the money spent on graduate applications and required documents all together. It just adds up!

I definitely agree that we should be able to attach unofficial transcripts and GRE scores. Then if we are accepted, to send official documents to the university. I definitely agree with that.

Some of the applications for my major (Speech Pathology) are through CSDCAS which is another system that charges even more for application fees. It's crazy!

[MichaelMiller]

Most grad school application fees range from $25 to $100, except business schools, which are often more expensive.

[DBear]

International student here  - I'm totally breaking the bank. 

Applying to 7 Phd programs - (int'l applications are consistently more expensive:( ) 

Application fees: approx $450 

GRE reporting : $216

TOEFL reporting : $137

mailing hard copies (int'l registered mail): $62

Official transcripts (BA,and 2 MAs and foreign exchange) : approx $60

Roughly $925 so far (an the exchange rate is not so good right now so what I'll actually have to pay once my credit card bill gets to me...urgh)

Then there's the cost of taking the GRE *3, and TOEFL  = that's around $800 and books and prep courses for the GRE (I didn't do anything to prep for the TOEFL) was around 500. 

So with test taking and the actual total is way over 2,000 so far. 

[Yanaka]

Ugh... I also have the TOEFL on top of everything else, but you're spending much more than I am even though we're applying to the same amount of grad schools. 

TOEFL was $200 here, though, and I paid 70€ for Magoosh prep for the GRE. But postages are about 5€ (with tracking, too), so nothing compared to your $60! 

[DBear]

3 hours ago, Yanaka said:

Ugh... I also have the TOEFL on top of everything else, but you're spending much more than I am even though we're applying to the same amount of grad schools. 

TOEFL was $200 here, though, and I paid 70€ for Magoosh prep for the GRE. But postages are about 5€ (with tracking, too), so nothing compared to your $60! 

One of the schools I'm applying to had a strange LoR upload system and my non-tech savvy professors preferred giving me hard copies and then two schools wanted hard copy transcripts. It seems most schools are moving away from official transcripts at the application phase, wish all did....

[Yanaka]

@DBear Yeah I think schools that require hardcopies at this stage of the process are not that many. UCLA, on the other hand, asked me for official transcripts and the translations to be sent to them...

Edited December 4, 2016 by Yanaka

[midmarsh]

I spent like $200 something on the GRE. I got flashcards and a prep book for free from a friend and used lots of free online material.

I'm only applying to schools that will give me a fee waiver, which most education schools will since I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer. I had to send in an application to get a waiver from Harvard.

I'll also spend another ~$150 on GRE score reports. I agree with the comment above about being able to send things in unofficially. Most of the schools I'm applying to accept unofficial transcripts (I'll have to send in an official one if and when I'm accepted), I should be able to do the same with the GRE.

[.letmeinplz//]

$27 per GRE transmission is ridiculous. Was really excited that 2 schools I'm applying to don't require official GRE scores sent (or don't take them at all). 

[KingNikolai1]

I applied to eight different places and it cost almost $1,000 between the GRE, transcripts, and app fees. This doesn't include the cost for GRE prep which I did not find as helpful as the price tag.

[hopefulPhD2017]

Yep, added this up the day after I submitted 8 applications. I've spent somewhere between $900 and $1000 on GRE Prep (Manhattan Prep books + Magoosh), GRE, sending out additional GRE scores, application fees (ranged from free-$125), transcripts for only one school (Univ. of Michigan). Yikes!

[stereopticons]

I think I'm at about $1200 now. I try not to think about it too hard. This is my fifth (!) round of applications and I've spent about that much each time.