MBA Scholarships

For the majority of MBA students, funding the cost of their chosen program will mean digging into hard earned savings, pulling in favors from sympathetic relatives, or taking out some form of loan. However, for a lucky minority, a scholarship can make all the difference to the business school experience.

According to Rose Martinelli, Dean of Admissions at Chicago GSB, USA, “Every year there are millions of dollars of unclaimed scholarships for MBA and graduate education, often from government agencies which have no marketing budgets to promote their schemes. Applicants have to search out these scholarships.” But where do you start?

School scholarships

Many business schools award their own scholarships to outstanding MBA candidates and your chosen school should consequently be your first port of call. These scholarships vary in amount and normally take the form of fee remission, with some including contributions to living expenses. Qualification criteria vary from school to school, but the most common are nationality, academic excellence or, the all-embracing term, merit. Lauren Tracey, Financial Aid Director at Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University explains: "We offer merit scholarships, which require no separate financial aid application. Simply put, the admission application alone makes applicants eligible for consideration for a merit scholarship." In 2004, 76% of full-time MBA students were awarded institutional grants or scholarship awards at Tepper, Carnegie Mellon. Their awards ranged from US$2,500 to the full tuition cost.

Another US school, University of Chicago GSB, offers scholarships to approximately 30% of the incoming MBA class each year. These are available to US citizens and international students. Candidates are automatically considered for a scholarship if admitted to the MBA program. Recent graduates applying to Harvard Business School are eligible to apply for Frank Knox Fellowships, while international candidates securing a place at the University of Pennsylvania are eligible to apply for Thuron Scholarships. In Europe, London Business School and INSEAD communicate their scholarship portfolio to successful candidates, when they have been offered a place.

Business schools increasingly seek to create truly international classes by encouraging applications from countries where there is little or no tradition of management education, or where the cost of studying abroad would be prohibitive. As a result, scholarships targeted at participants from particular countries is becoming more common. The business school of the University of South Dakota, for example, offers a US$5,000 scholarship for students originating in East Asia, while Edinburgh Business School, UK has developed four scholarships for applicants

from South America and Africa. Other schools use scholarships to improve student diversity in a different way. The Indian School of Business has two awards sponsored by the Anand Group and Novartis, which are only available to women. Northeastern University College of Business Administration, USA has the Martin Luther King Jr Graduate Fellowship to attract students from the African-American community. Details of scholarships offered by over 200 major schools are available through the online selection tool, Scorecard, which allows potential MBAs to search and evaluate programmes depending on their personal aims, abilities and circumstances

Do see for more information on scholarships in my next posting.www.emphaticresultacademy.blogspot.com