While you are going to school in USA as an international student, you need to save every possible penny. Study in USA is expensive. Make sure you have a good idea about expenses.
Cost of living is major factor when selecting university.
Cost of living calculator will give an idea about different cities and its very clear from difference in salary range for masters degree in 13 different cities,.
Also, students life style is much different from people who work full time. Here’s the breakdown of typical monthly student expenses and list gives an average of many cities, if student happen to study in LA, it will be more expensive.
Cost of Living in LA
- Apartment Rent – $75 to $200/month ( Can’t avoid. More roommates less Rent)
- Electricity – $10 to $25/month
- Food – 150+/month (Depends on Eating Habits)
- Laptop – $450 – $1500 ( One time investment)
- Cell phone – $35 to $70(iPhone costs more, landline not required)
- Public transportation – $30 (usually for students its free )
- Books/Textbooks – $50 – $150 /quarter (Get books from friends or buy used books)
- Shopping/travel – $20 to $50/month ( It varies )
- Calling cards – $5 to $20/month (free – Skype, GTalk, )
- Car – $1500 – $3000 ( How to buy an used car )
- Car maintenance – $80 to $100 / month ( Includes – insurance, gas, service, parking)
- Gifts to GFs/BFs – Unlimited
How much did I spend while in School?
- Apartment Rent – $75 (yeah its just $75)
- Electricity – $10 – $15
- Food – $125/month
- Laptop – $1500 (Fujitsu Lifebook)
- Cell phone – $45 ( I got Cell phone almost towards the end of M.S.)
- Landline phone – $5
- Internet, Cable TV, Netflix – $15
- Books/Textbooks -I got most of books from friends/seniors
- Shopping/travel – $50 to $100/month ( It varies )
- Calling cards – $10 (Used Yahoo Messenger – Vocie chat)
- Car – $600 ( My first Car, shared the cost )
- Car maintenance – $50 ( $100/2 insurance, gas, service, parking)
- Gifts to GFs – $0 (Poor Me!!)
Next – Cost of Living in University of Southern California ( one of expensive places to live).
Hi Raghuram,
My name is Julia and I work at NerdWallet, a personal finance website that brings an analytic, consumer-oriented approach to financial product recommendations.
We have created a valuable Cost of Living Calculator: http://www.nerdwallet.com/cost-of-living-calculator/
This tool helps to educate students about living expenses and incorporates factors such as entertainment, food and health care costs. I am reaching out to you and hoping that you will highlight these tools as resources on your website.
Thanks!
next year m planning for doing MS in USA……can anyone please tell me the living expenses over there….
Dear
I am planning to study in univeristy called northwestern plytechnic univeristy it is located in fermont, california
I want to know whether this is good univeristy for study mater in busienss and i want to know the cost of accomadation around this universty.
Regard
Can one live easily in $2000 a month in Charlotte? I won’t be having any car.
$125 / month for food is a joke, unless you’re okay living off of rice and butter noodles. I find it hard to spend less than $300 / month on groceries.
I would agree with Katie, this website is wack. Living in LA for 75 dollars a month, that is not possible even if you live with 10 roommates in a single room, its possible if you live in a ghetto neighborhood. Living expenses are way too high in LA. Everyone doesnt eat rice all day long so ye.
Came upon your article while googling. I am planning to get into Miami Ad School. Will be helpful if you could help me with approximate living expenses there or which city comes the closest to expense there? Will check that article than.
Miami is bit expensive, if you have part time jobs/RA/TA you can manage + awesome place to be.
Miami is not a bit expensive. Miami is super expensive, i am currently working in Miami. The rent over here for a single bedroom starts around 1400/month. But again if you want to live with a bunch of roommates its a different story but still it is not going to cost you less than 600-700 a month and that too if you are sharing. The living expenses are ridiculous, car insurance in Miami is the highest in the United states.
sq115 you are lallu , this is useful for undergraduates like us too…..
Well I would like to have an article regarding living cost in Texas….
If possible I would like to post one (When i reach there, hope it happens sooooon.. )
It’d be great if you could post some articles for undergrads too.