On this page
- Tuition
- One-way flight to Paris
- First-time arrival expenses
- First year on campus, monthly expenses
- Gap year first half: Los Angeles internship
- Flight back to Paris
- Gap year second half: MAC Cosmetics in Paris
- Second year on campus
- The final month in Paris
- The total
- Ways to reduce your spend
- How to think about the total
When prospective students ask me what HEC Paris actually cost over three years, they usually want a single number. They want to know what to tell their parents, what to plan a loan around, and what to compare against US options or other European schools. I went back through my own spending across the three years of the MiM, including the gap year and all the moves it required, and the total came to roughly sixty thousand euros. Here is the full breakdown, line by line, so you can adjust it to your own situation.
Tuition
In the year I joined, tuition was 37,000 euros for the full MiM. I received a 4,000 euro entrance scholarship, which brought my net tuition to 33,000 euros. Current tuition rates have risen since. Check the HEC website for the latest.
One-way flight to Paris
A one-way from India to Paris in August, peak season, cost me 500 euros.
First-time arrival expenses
The first month on campus came with a wave of one-time spending.
- IKEA basics for my room: 300 euros
- HEC Alumni Network membership: 200 euros
- Winter clothes coming from Bangalore: 300 to 400 euros
Total arrival expenses: roughly 1,000 euros.
First year on campus, monthly expenses
My net rent after CAF was 400 euros a month. Groceries came to about 200 euros a month. Phone, transport, and haircut added another 50 euros a month on average. Subtotal for rent, food, and basics: 650 euros a month.
Every month there was also something else: a piece of clothing, a tech accessory, hobby gear. Averaged across ten months that was another 150 euros a month. Add small trips at 50 euros a month, eating out in Paris at 80 euros a month, and parties on campus at 70 euros a month.
The first year averaged roughly 1,000 euros a month in living expenses over ten months of active campus time. December I went home to India, which removed that month from the calculation.
| Year 1 totals | Amount |
|---|---|
| Net tuition | EUR 33,000 |
| Flight to Paris | EUR 500 |
| First-time arrival expenses | EUR 1,000 |
| Living expenses (10 months) | EUR 10,000 |
| Year 1 subtotal | EUR 44,500 |
Gap year first half: Los Angeles internship
The first half of my gap year was a six-month internship at a tech startup in LA. The company paid for my visa, but I paid for the flight and initial settlement: 300 for the flight, 300 for a hostel for the first 10 days, and 400 for the first month settling in.
The internship stipend covered my living expenses for the remaining five months and my flight back to India. Out of pocket I spent roughly 1,500 euros during the LA half.
If you want the full story on how I found these internships, I wrote that up in HEC Paris gap year.
Flight back to Paris
A one-way from India to Paris in early January cost about 800 euros. Running total so far: EUR 46,800.
Gap year second half: MAC Cosmetics in Paris
My second internship paid roughly 1,000 euros a month after social contributions. Rent jumped to 760 a month in the city. Groceries and basics added 240 a month. Going out and shopping took 200 to 300 a month before the pandemic shut everything down. Out of pocket on top of stipend for the first two months: roughly 600 euros.
Then March 2020 happened. The office gave us a meal card worth about 80 a month. I started cutting my own hair. Mostly there was nothing to spend money on because everything was closed.
The internship ended in early July. HEC second year did not start until late August. I had to self-fund two summer months of rent and living, which came to about 3,000 euros since the city had reopened.
Running total: EUR 49,400, rounded to EUR 50,000.
Second year on campus
Rent was the same as the first year, around 400 a month. Living expenses tracked similarly at about 1,000 a month, for the seven months on campus from September to April, excluding December which I spent back in India. Year 2 living costs: EUR 7,000. The India trip cost another EUR 1,000 in flights.
The final month in Paris
I moved into Paris for the last month of HEC, sharing an apartment with my classmate Cody. That month cost about EUR 1,300: 700 in rent and 600 on eating out and bubble tea.
The total
Adding it all up: EUR 59,300.
That figure is not exact. There were small expenses I forgot. There may also be a few line items I slightly overcounted. As a reasonable estimate, the total was around EUR 60,000 over three years, which is roughly 50 lakh INR.
| Phase | Amount |
|---|---|
| Year 1 (tuition + arrival + living) | EUR 44,500 |
| Gap year LA half | EUR 1,500 |
| Flight to Paris in January | EUR 800 |
| Gap year Paris half (over and above stipend) | EUR 3,600 |
| Year 2 living and India trip | EUR 8,000 |
| Final month in Paris | EUR 1,300 |
| Three-year total | ~EUR 60,000 |
This is significant but it is still less than half of what a top US master’s costs. A US business master’s runs eighty to one hundred thousand dollars in tuition alone. A top European MBA easily exceeds one hundred thousand euros. The MiM at HEC remains a relatively efficient way to access an elite education.
Ways to reduce your spend
Sixty thousand euros is not a small number. There are real ways to cut it down.
Apprenticeship. The highest-impact way is an apprenticeship structure where a company pays your tuition and gives you a stipend in exchange for part-time work. HEC Paris does not offer apprenticeships. ESSEC does. If cost matters, HEC vs ESSEC is worth reading carefully.
Scholarships. The Eiffel Scholarship pays around 1,200 euros per month. The Charpak Scholarship pays around 500 a month. Both are competitive. HEC’s own entrance scholarships shaved 4,000 euros off my tuition. I broke down HEC Paris scholarships separately.
Part-time jobs. HEC does not actively support part-time work. The campus is remote and TA or RA positions are rare. Fixed-term contracts exist but are exceptions.
Live mindfully. Buy less, eat in more, cook for friends instead of going out, choose social groups whose spending matches yours. The cumulative effect across three years is meaningful.
How to think about the total
The number above is what I spent. Your total will look different based on currency exposure, scholarship outcomes, travel habits, and accommodation. Use my breakdown as a baseline.
For the value side, my HEC Paris ROI post is the right next read. For my four-years-out assessment of whether the spend was worth it, was HEC Paris worth it covers that question.