Affording Life/Rent in Grad School

[nic2017]

Like many of you, I'm waiting anxiously for decisions to be released in the coming weeks and took to Craigslist to scope out housing opportunities in the D.C. area. And it's expensive. Assuming that any financial aid I may receive will go towards tuition, does anyone have advice for someone who's fretting about how paying rent will work out when you're in a full time MA program in an expensive city? Is it common for grad students to have outside employment, or are on-campus jobs common for Master's students (assuming student teaching positions all go to PhD candidates)?

[d4r56]

Just as an example, at Chicago Harris about 1/3 don't work at all, 1/3 have a research assistant type job (e.g. do research with a professor), and 1/3 have jobs outside of the university (e.g. work with a local nonprofit in Chicago, etc.). Typically (of those who work) first year students work about 10-12 hours per week and during the second year maybe even 15-20 hours per week.

Another question: Does anyone know how accurate the "Tuition and Expenses" pages are on school's websites?? I've heard they tend to underestimate so as not to scare people off, but I have no idea. Surely the tuition/fees are accurate...I guess I'm asking more about the room/board/personal expenses/books&supplies/transportation (any other hidden expenses that one may not be thinking about?)

Example: http://harris.uchicago.edu/admissions-and-aid/tuition-and-expenses

Edit: this is regarding the MPP program. Also note that the total in that link does NOT include summers (at the bottom, in tiny print, you'll see it says ~$75,000 for 12 months -- not $70,000)

Edited February 24, 2017 by d4r56

[TakeruK]

2 hours ago, d4r56 said:

Another question: Does anyone know how accurate the "Tuition and Expenses" pages are on school's websites?? I've heard they tend to underestimate so as not to scare people off, but I have no idea. Surely the tuition/fees are accurate...I guess I'm asking more about the room/board/personal expenses/books&supplies/transportation (any other hidden expenses that one may not be thinking about?)

I think the total dollar amount is roughly right for an "average person", however, the distribution of expenses can be a little wrong! For example, my school's cost of attendance/estimated budget shows $1200 for books. This is way more than most grad students spend on books (in my field anyways). But the ones for my school total around $30,000 (not including tuition and fees) and I would say that this the typical cost for a student in my area of the country (our stipends are a little bit more than that, but after taxes, it is basically equal to the expenses).

I would also be wary of the rent estimates and the personal expenses estimate. I'm sure that some rents like they estimate exist, but your own preferences and needs may require you to have a different rental cost. Similarly, "personal expenses" is super vague and one person's personal expenses is not the same as others. "Transportation" is super vague as well: does this include the cost of owning a car or is it just public transit? etc. My recommendation would be to use these categories as reminders of what to check for, and then look up your own costs based on your own needs.

Don't forget that their definition of "room" often includes utilities and phone service. So it's not just the cost of rent, but remember to add in whatever else you want. And another thing I often have to remind people is to budget for taking trips home to see family etc. if you plan on doing this. Distance from home (and thus the cost of doing so) is a factor when comparing costs of graduate schools.