Thinking about applying to bschool? It’s gonna be expensive.

We had a BSer share their experience of their path to bschool several months back, and when they sent over their story, they also mentioned this:

Also, I didn’t have a way to insert this into the story, but my total costs from this process ended up being more than $3,000 (GMAT class, taking the GMAT, application fees, consulting fees). I’m not sure if you’ve ever covered the cost of applying before–but if you haven’t, it might be an interesting blog topic. People should know the kind of investment it takes to apply, and that they shouldn’t try to cut corners (i.e. only plan on taking the GMAT once–that was really one person’s advice on how to save money!).

Note that the “consulting fees” in this case were a relatively small percentage – this person used our very cost-effective Essay Decimator two-stage review which is priced massively below market, and if you read their story, it clearly was a worthwhile investment – they used the feedback received on multiple applications and it ended up getting them in. Our mission is to help even the playing field for MBA admissions and we’re committed to keeping our prices low compared to the ridiculous fees that we see others charging (especially when we see what that advice often looks like).

Anyway back to the actual topic at hand: Applying to bschool can be expensive.

There’s two ways to look at this:

• Yes, it can be expensive – and you can budget it into the overall cost of getting the MBA. If you think about it, $3,000 is a tiny little sliver of the total you’ll be paying for the degree.
• Yes, it can be expensive – but is $3,000 actually that expensive when compared to the entirely different life path that will open up for you when you’re admitted to the school of your dreams?

When you want something bad enough, you find ways to make it happen. But yes, recognizing that this can be a costly endeavor is helpful. That way you can manage things as you go. For this particular former BSer, that $3,000 was spread out over almost two years, which isn’t that bad when you look at it with perspective.

So there’s another encouragement to start early – you can amortize your cash outlay over a longer period!

And there’s plenty of ways you can go it alone in this process, too – it is NOT necessary to cough up huge amounts of dough for high-priced consulting. It’s just not. There’s plenty of resources available out there (we have some we can recommend – and oh yeah, you found this blahg) – just be sure to evaluate the source and make sure you’re going with a trusted advisor when developing your strategy.