Students and their parents often enquire “ How much money is needed after cracking the GRE for M.S?” Well, this depends on which university you are applying for. After scoring well in GRE, studying abroad is a cherished dream for millions ,but it is often quite expensive too. Costs of application, tuition, living and even visas can often rack up tremendously, making studying overseas an inaccessible dream for many.
Wondering how much it costs to complete your MS from the US? I've summed up most of the factors here and you'll get a fair idea of the expenditure for MS in the USA.
Expenses for MS IN USA While in India
This is, usually, the first step towards the entire journey for your MS in the USA. The GRE exam fee is $205
Low scorers and a bunch of restless high scorers might retake the exam adding another $205. (or INR 15,200).
While you might skip the GRE test for your applications to the States (some universities do take in applications without GRE), TOEFL is something that you can't skip. It is like a passport to the United States. The universities need to know your proficiency with the language and hence, it is a compulsory exam, if not at the time of applications, at least during the VISA interview. The TOEFL exam fee is $170 (or INR 12,600).
Fees for applying to each university may vary from $50 (INR 3700) to $100 (INR 7400) with the former being the most common. However, applications are incomplete without sending your official test scores (GRE and TOEFL) through ETS, adding another $47 (GRE: $27 and TOEFL: $20)
On average, students apply to 10 US universities and the total estimate comes out to be as follows;
Application Fee ($60) + Sending GRE and TOEFL scores ($27 + $20) = $107. Let's be on the safer (read higher) side and assume $110 per university. So, applications to 10 universities will be a whopping $1100 (or INR 81,400)
Now, this list might be long and will drastically vary from every applicant. Still, the normal expenses in this category are as follows:
In some cases, students make multiple copies of the Letter of Recommendations (LoRs) and Statement of Purpose (SoP) and unnecessarily burn an extra 500 bucks or so. There may be other charges like late registration, reinstating canceled scores, sectional reviews, rescheduling which ranges from ($20-$160 each). (appx INR 7400). To avoid these extra charges, you must make a good GRE prep study plan and start applications early and well before the deadlines.
While the costs are just a notable factor, it's really important to know the entire VISA Procedure.
Once you receive your I20 (official document sent by the university which states your stay in the United States and the amount to be spent for the year), follow application process of universities in the USA and pay up the VISA Fee which is $160 (INR 11,840) followed by the SEVIS fee which is $200 (INR 14,800)
Single way airfares in Economy Class vary between INR 60,000 to INR 80,000 depending on your city, destination, and airline. Return airfares cost somewhere between INR 1,20,000 to INR 1,60,000.
Expenses for MS IN US
Students who plan to study in top universities in the USA located in states/cities like California, New York City, Chicago, New Jersey, Washington, Florida, Boston have to keep in mind that owing to the popularity of the location, they might have to spend more as the cost of MS in USA for Indian Students is expensive.
The two primary expenses after reaching the States are Tuition Fee and Living Expenses.
This is a highly variable expense and differs from university to university and is also based on your course. It's also the biggest expense you'll be making. On average, consider tuition fees to be USD 40,000 (INR 29,60,000) for a two-year MS program in the USA. Of course, you may get scholarships or other financial aid which can reduce these costs. You might also want to consider financing your tuition fee with an education loan
Well, there's no accurate way to estimate living expenses as factors like
On average students tend to spend between $500 to $1100 per month which includes everything. If your course length is 2 years you'll end up spending around $15,000 (INR 11,10,000). Most of the students however never end up spending so much as assistantships and internships cover up a lot of these costs.
Doing an MS at top 100 institutes will definitely cost you around INR 50 lacs and this is just your tuition Fees.
The GRE score is not considered solely to get a scholarship in the globally top universities; however, a high GRE score can help you to get some funding from the universities
There are several different ways you can get scholarships given by universities in the USA. Here are 3 major ways to get them.
Most of the US universities give MS and PhD together in the US, but some do give only MS. follow the steps as given below:
A good GRE score can readily convince the lender to sanction you a personal loan. Besides the age criteria, most lenders check your academic record, including your class X and XII marksheets, consistency in performance, and more to advance the loan. This also includes your performance in the admission tests.
Since many overseas institutions use GRE scores as indicators of a student’s potential, a good score can improve your chances of getting an education loan for overseas studies favourably.
Documentation required:
As per the standard operating procedure, the following documents are needed to initiate the loan application process.
*The article might have information for the previous academic years, please refer the official website of the exam.