If you choose to study abroad, in addition to paying the tuition fees for each year of study, you will also have to meet the costs of living in your adopted city.
This point is far from trivial.
Being clear about the budget you need to live in good conditions at your place of study is not only a guarantee that your plans are realistic (and therefore an asset for your admissions interview and your visa application process) but also, and above all, an essential step in checking that your financial capacity is appropriate to your plans.
What would you say, for example, to someone looking for accommodation in the centre of Bombay paying less than 20,000 INR a month in rent?
To someone wanting the same thing in the centre of Dubaï on a budget of 4,000 AED a month?
You'd probably be worried about their ability to find good accommodation once they're there...
Even though the French authorities require a minimum monthly income of €615 as part of the visa application, estimating a student's budget cannot be boiled down to this simple figure.
Calculating and planning a realistic budget for studying abroad is a crucial step that should not be taken lightly. And while the word budget can sometimes be frightening, it's quite easy to define the broad outlines without getting carried away.
Here's our advice:
1. Use a tool like MS Excel so that you can use the automatic addition formulas and easily update your budget if necessary.
2. Separate recurring costs (i.e. those you have to pay every month) from one-off costs (i.e. those you only have to pay once).
3. Define the main categories of recurring expenditure. Here's a suggestion of 7 items: accommodation, telephone and Internet, lunches, food shopping, non-food shopping, leisure activities, transport, etc.
4. Find an average cost for each item and add them all together to get a monthly budget.
5. Outline any exceptional back-to-school expenses: agency fees, security deposit, visa validation fees, accommodation and civil liability insurance, etc.
Without providing an exhaustive list, there are many sites that give constantly updated data on the cost of living around the world. More specific to the student budget, in France two of the main student representative organisations, the FAGE and the UNEF, publish figures every year on the cost of student life in France (FAGE: "Indicateur du coût de la rentrée" and UNEF: "Classement des villes universitaires"). In these publications, which are available free online, you will find the average cost of all the categories of expenditure that you will face as a higher education student in France.
To make things easier for you, MediaSchool International can also provide you with a budget sheet on request, which summarises all these estimated expenses on a short sheet. Don't hesitate to ask for it. :)
Once you have defined your provisional monthly budget, it is essential that you think about how you are going to finance it, i.e. how you are going to raise this sum each month. If you're counting on a job at the same time as your studies in France to supplement this budget, you need to bear in mind that you won't be able to work more than 20 hours a week (as part of your study visa) and that you can expect to earn a maximum of around €700 net per month.
All too often, students fail to take sufficient account of this essential budgetary aspect and find themselves unable to pay the balance of their tuition fees during the course of their studies, despite having made a commitment to do so...
So one of the keys to a successful study abroad project lies in accurately anticipating the budget involved and putting together a suitable financing plan. So get your calculators!
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