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This list shows you how much you need to get into an Ivy League
An expensive door to enter. Source: Shutterstock

Expensive pre-schools, music and art classes, college counselling sessions – all of these preparation to get into the hallowed halls of prestigious universities add up and boy, do they add up to a lot.

According to Town & Country’s calculations, it costs an astronomical US$1.7 million to send one child to an Ivy League institution, a figure said to be higher than anywhere else in the world.

Competition to enter these institutions start from birth, that means education costs start running from then itself and not just from the first college tuition payment.

T&C’s first edition on this list of expenses in 1973 totalled US$300,000. Today, it’s ballooned to nearly 6 times more.

Here’s 2017’s breakdown in all its (expensive) glory:

Age (years) Item Costs (US$) Total (US$)
6 months – 4 Music and Art Classes:
Six courses at Diller-Quaile School of Music
in New York City		 1,995 to 10,945 29,870
2 – 5 Preschool Admission Coach:
Interview and test prep, including practice
“observational playgroup” at Aristotle Circle
in New York City		 250 to 450 an hour 4,500 (10 hours)
3 – 4 Nursery School and Pre-Kindergarten:
Nursery Threes and Pre-Kindergarten at
Horace Mann School in New York City		 33,600 and 46,800 per year 80,400
5 – 9 Lower School:
Kindergarten through fourth grade at                          Francis Parker School in Chicago		 29,700 to 31,720
per year.		 156,400
5 – 17 Private Language Tutor:
One lesson per week, 40 weeks a year		 200 per lesson. 104,000
6 – 16 Summer Camp:
Seven-week sessions at Raquette Lake Camp in
the Adirondacks		 13,750 per year 137,500
4 – 18 Music Lessons:
Weekly private lessons until age 10.
Then pre-college music program at San Francisco
Conservatory of Music		 200 weekly and
9,480 per year		 138,240
8 – 18 Sports:
NYC Juniors Volleyball Club (local & with travel)		 2,600 per year
and 7,700 per year		 56,600
8 – 17 Math Tutor:                                                                       One lesson per week, 40 weeks a year 200 per hour. 80,000
10 – 14 Middle School:
Fifth through eighth grade as a day student at Milton
Academy in Milton, Massachusetts		 34,670 to 43,440
per year.		 164,990
10 – 13  STEM Classes:
Two-week summer STEM 1 for Middle Schoolers
at Brown University		 4,196 per year. 12,588
14 – 15 Volunteer Experiences:
Global Volunteers two-week program in Tanzania
and St. Vincent		 $3,000 per person
for a family of
4 for each program.		 24,000
14 – 18 Summer School:
Two Seven-week programs at the American School
in Switzerland
Two five-week programs at John Hopkins		 8,160each and
10,475 each		 37,270
12 – 17 Homework Coach:
After-school homework help and academic coaching
from Central Park Tutors, one hour per day,
two days a week, 40 weeks a year,		 135 an hour 64,000
14 – 18 High School:
Four years at Harvard-Westlake School
in Los Angeles		 39,400 per year 157,600
14 – 17 College Admission Prep:
IvyWise freshman through senior college prep
courses and counseling		 100,000 100,000
18 – 19 Gap Year:
Winterline’s travel and cultural immersion
gap year program		 55,000 55,000
19 – 20 Study Abroad:
Yale summer sessions in Rabat, Morocco
(intensive Arabic), and Paris (international law)		 12,152 each 24,304
21 – 22 Two Summer Internships:
Fee to receive three credits for a summer internship
through Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey		 6,200 6,200
19 – 22 College:
Four years at Yale		 70,570 per year 282,280
GRAND TOTAL: 1,715,742

These are scary figures and I sure hope for future applicants that they qualify for financial aid as around half of the student cohort at these 8 Ivy League member schools reportedly do.

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