Financial Analysis for Studying in USA

This informative post is collected from the group named: NextTop-USA (Higher study in USA)

Original Post Writer: Jawad Siddique Efaz 

Dear higher study aspirant,

Hope you guys are staying safe and healthy and preparing to catch the Spring 2021 and Fall 2021 term. I am living in the USA for about a year and I came up with a financial analysis that can help you to clear some doubts.

Before coming to the USA the cost involved is approximately Tk 3 lakh. The amount is huge but if you plan wisely and spend the amount in a span of 1 year then it would be helpful. After graduation, you can take 6-7 copies of certificates and transcripts from your own university. This will cost around 5-10k taka.

Then you will start your preparation for GRE, for that you need a Magoosh account which costs around $100-160 (Tk 8500-13600). You can use shared account which will cost you less. Then you will give GRE costing around $205 (17425Tk), TOEFL around $185(Tk 15725).

Now for applying to university there is an application fee of $70 approx. So if you apply 7 university, it will cost you $490(Tk 41650). Now you need to send your GRE and TOEFL scores. If you have a plan to utilize your 4 free score sending options then it will save you some money. Sending GRE scores to 4 university will cost you around $ 27 x 4 = $108 (Tk 9180) and for TOEFL scores it is $18 x 4 = $72 (Tk 6120). The universities that you get admission will ask for your transcripts which you can send by DHL. This will cost Tk2000 per university.

When the application process is completed and you got your desired admission to the university, you need to pay your SEVIS fees of around $350 (Tk 29750) and pay the visa fees of around $160 (Tk13600). Book your tickets early with www.studentuniverse.com or Skyscanner app which will cost around $400-1000(Tk 34000- Tk 85000). Do some shopping around Tk 25000 and give ur flu shots of Tk 10000.

These are the expenditures you can bear over a span of one year like Magoosh account, transcript in 1st month, GRE in the 4th month, TOEFL 6th month, Admission 8th month, Visa, SEVIS 10th month, Ticket, Shopping, Vaccine on the 12th month.

When you arrive in USA, carry around $1500 dollar with you because you will get your first salary for TA/RA/GA at the end of the month if you are fully funded. You need to buy insurance and groceries initially, provide rent, internet bills, electric bills and your college bills.

Living here I got a rough idea about the expenditure, if you are fully funded and not living in big cities in California/Chicago spend around 20-30% on rent and bills($300-600), 10-15% on groceries ($120-200), 5% on internet and mobile bills($50-70), insurance divided per month will be 0-10 %(0-$150) and college bills around 5-15% ($50-200).

So according to me and some of my friend, you will have an expenditure of 60-85% including tax(state and federal tax) if you are not living in big cities. There are some passive income that you can get throughout your study. If your friend refer you DISCOVER credit card, you get $50 cash back, for good grades discover gives you $20 and when you refer other person you can also get $50. There is 0-5% cash back bonus in your credit card which has an 0% APR period of 6-9 months.

Its better to take AMEX credit card when the 0 % APR period ends for DISCOVER. In AMEX you get $150 when you get referred by and you can get $75 when you refer. This card also got cash back bonus and APR period of 6-12 months. Moreover if you have interest in stock, You now have a claim to a stock like Apple, Ford, or Facebook.

In order to keep this claim to your stock, sign up and join Robinhood using my link. https://join.robinhood.com/mdjawas. Don’t jump into it without prior knowledge. There is another app called Fetch Rewards where you can scan your grocery receipts and claim gift cards of amazon.

Besides, Baangladesh Sweden Trust fund will partially sponsor your ticket ( http://bstf.erd.gov.bd/). Apply before deadline(usually October) every year to claim partial refund. Lastly join events, free food service in your university too।

This is the whole scenario of income and expenditure in USA according to my perspective. Feel free to add any comments or anything that I missed.