So how expensive is life in the States, really? [relocation advice thread]

[Hauldren Collider]

U. of Michigan Business School is the equal of all of those, and Ann Arbor has a much lower cost of living than any of them.

No it is not. I didn't even know Michigan had a business school. Contra, if I told someone pretty much anywhere in the world that I had a Harvard MBA, they'd be impressed. Unless they think MBAs are stupid (not necessarily wrong), in which case they would acknowledge that I had a very prestigious piece of toilet paper.

That said, it may actually be equal in terms of what you actually learn. Or it may not be, I have no idea.

[Hauldren Collider]

Google has offices in Ann Arbor, FWIW.

Best of luck to you, good sir!

Google has offices in Pittsburgh too, but afaik it's basically all just recruiters who interview CMU students. If you're a software engineer at Google, you're in Silicon Valley.

[Dinner]

Dinner: these are great news! Are you certain, about this, can anyone confirm?

Qualified aliens include (Sec 431):

• Legal Permanent Residents
• Asylees
• Refugees
• Aliens paroled into the U.S. for at least one year
• Aliens whose deportations are being withheld
• Aliens granted conditional entry (prior to April 1, 1980)
• Battered alien spouses, battered alien children, the alien parents of battered children, and alien children of battered parents who fit certain criteria
• Cuban/Haitian entrants
• Victims of a severe form of trafficking

Hmm, it seems you have to be a legal perminent US resident so perhaps just being a legal resident isn't enough. I'm not sure. It might also vary by state as officially the states are responsible for running medicare.

http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/immigration/restrictions-sum.shtml

For Medi-Cal (the California state medicaid program their website says this:

Not a U.S. citizen –
If you are not a U.S. citizen or national, you only
need to provide the same documents that were required
before. Nothing has changed.

Further reading seems to imply legal US residents with foreign citizenship do qualify for both Medi-Cal (which is income dependent for qualification) and CoveredCA (the state ACA insurance marketplace). Illegal aliens are not but legal aliens with U.S. Residency do.

http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/formsandpubs/forms/Forms/ENG_DRA_Flyer3.pdf

[Guynemer]

No it is not. I didn't even know Michigan had a business school.

It is literally ranked one spot below Yale in the US News rankings.

That said, it may actually be equal in terms of what you actually learn. Or it may not be, I have no idea.

And that is the problem with rankings, really.

[Hauldren Collider]

It is literally ranked one spot below Yale in the US News rankings.

But that doesn't matter. Because it doesn't have the same brand recognition. Note that I'm NOT saying that this is fair or reasonable.

And that is the problem with rankings, really.

Yes.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Indeed it is "brand recognition" - esp if Az is thinking of going back to Israel afterwards.

[Guynemer]

Fair point.

[DaShi]

That's what I said. :wiglaf: :madwiglaf:

[Az]

I plan on moving to Israel after several years in the states. However, statistics published show a very strong correlation between ranking and salaries in the states as well, and the employers I will be with in the states will be the way to relocate safely back to Israel. I have a particular plan in mind for this. In any case, UMich is very nice, for sure, some ranking it on the same level as Kellogg Northwestern.

[Nikolai]

Answers:

1) Food and groceries, you should budget at least 75 a week for two people. You can probably squeeze out more by making some sacrifices, but this is not really the budget buster. This assumes you basically eat in every day.
2) Utils: gas+electricity will run you about a hundred a month. If you want internet service budget 50. Ditto for each cell line. Rent is going to be the killer for you. 2 bedrooms will be expensive in any northeast city. You can economize, but you will pay for it in crime, commuting time and shiftiness of where you live.
3) Health insurance: you will get this through your grad school. Check out what likely schools have in the way of insurance and what they charge.

50 USD for a single cell line? Are you serious? Either that includes a LOT or America is really expensive? Over here you can get unlimited calls/SMS/MMS and 1 GB data for your cell for 30 bucks. There are deals that are even cheaper, if you use the cell very little. There are also family deals that makes each line even cheaper.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

25USD here, I guess due to the exchange rate - ie unlimited calls/sms with 1 gb traffic per month. US "free market" is really a cartel in telecom/cable/ISP space. For low end users that I use for my spare phone, 6hrs free calls, 5cents per sms and 1gb is 5 bucks per month.

[Nikolai]

Yeah. Also, Norway is several times as expensive and well paid, so the difference is even worse off for America, really.

[Az]

Yeah, I blinked at the cell charges as well, but if NORWAY pays less, this can't be right.

So what is the verdict on the whole pregnancy/health coverage shebang? :/

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Not having direct experience myself, but two cases - when insured from my colleagues, just birth cost 2k USD, 1k deductible and 10% for first 10k after that point... with the actual cost being ~ 15k charged by the hospital to the insurer.

I think those cases were mid 00's NY and Chicago... I guess different insurers/states could be different, however someone actually living there & the doc's could comment on actual cost/range.

To me that is sort of shocking that you have to pay for birth in hospital in the 21st century, but - that's US for you. In the name of the "Free Market" and all.

[rah]

It must have changed. When my daughter was born many years ago, our insurance covered just about everything. I think we paid less than $50 for some incidentals. And that included a c-section.