Student loans are a popular way to pay for an MBA, but loans come with one major drawback — debt, which can take years to repay.
Scholarships can relieve students of some financial burden, but knowing how schools award them, which non-academic institutions offer MBA scholarships and when to apply for this kind of aid can be a mystery. Even MBA admissions experts are sometimes stumped.
“It’s still pretty opaque,” says Betsy Massar when describing the scholarship landscape. Massar is the founder of Master Admissions, which helps prospective students get into business school and other graduate schools, and a graduate of Harvard Business School.
Business schools usually award a variety of merit-based scholarships, which some institutions call fellowships, and the types of scholarships can vary from school to school. And just because a school offers a certain scholarship one year doesn’t mean that it will be offered the following year, experts say.
[Assess five funding options to help pay for an MBA.]
Even with these nuances, there are a few tactics every prospective MBA student can use to become a strong scholarship candidate. Below, admissions and financial aid experts describe three.
— Be a strong applicant: In most cases students shouldn’t think about scholarships until they know whether they’ve gotten into school.
“We actually consider all accepted students for scholarships,” says Kyle Sanford, the associate director of recruiting at University of Iowa’s Tippie School of Management.
At Tippie, accepted students can be considered for a number of scholarships, such as the Tippie MBA Women’s Award or the U.S. Armed Forces Award. Multiple students can be awarded the same scholarship, he says.
The University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School has a similar process for selecting who is eligible for merit aid, says Sherry Wallace, the school’s director of MBA admissions. Students don’t need to fill out a form to be considered for most of the school’s fellowships.
“The same criteria that the admissions committee is using to select which applicants will be admitted are the criteria that the fellowship selection team is using to determine to whom fellowships will be offered,” she says.
[Take four steps to decide how much to borrow for an MBA.]
Standard parts of an MBA application are usually what’s critiqued for scholarships.
“They’re going to be the candidates with the highest GMAT and the best work experience, the richest work experience,” says Elissa Sangster, executive director of the Forte Foundation, which supports women pursuing graduate business school and careers in business.
— Research outside scholarships: Many schools offer merit-based awards that cover only some of the tuition and fees for a school year, leaving students to come up with thousands of dollars on their own to fill the gap.
Financial aid experts recommend students research scholarships offered from organizations other than their target school. Earlier this semester, Sanford said, a Tippie MBA student won a $10,000 scholarship from Group O, a Hispanic-owned business, and the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
Students can also look for merit aid through National Black MBA Association and the National Society of Hispanic MBAs, Wallace says.
Kenan-Flagler, where Wallace works, is also a partner school of the Forte Foundation and a member of The Consortium of Graduate Study in Management. The Forte Foundation offers fellowships, and other support, for women MBA students who are admitted to partner schools.
The consortium offers scholarships and other resources for new students admitted to member schools who have shown a commitment to diversity. Students interested in the fellowship must apply to schools through the consortium’s application, says Peter Aranda, the executive director and CEO.
It’s possible for a student to be accepted into an MBA program after applying through the consortium and not receive a scholarship. “We don’t control how the schools make financial aid decisions,” Aranda says. “The students compete for those fellowships.” The Forte Foundation also allows partner schools to independently decide which students receive awards.
Reaching Out MBA, an organization for MBA students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or an ally of these communities, has a similar policy for its new fellowship. The fellowship will award scholarships of at least $10,000 per school year, starting next school year, through its network of partner institutions, says Matt Kidd, the executive director. The students who receive it is completely up to the schools, he says.
[Weigh costs of a part-time and full-time M.B.A. programs.]
— Be ready to negotiate: Students with multiple acceptance letters from MBA programs may be able to convince their No. 1 choice to offer scholarship money.
“You’re definitely trying to use your scholarship dollars to try and woo accepted students,” says Sangster, who previously worked in the administration for University of Texas–Austin’s McCombs School of Business.
Students can contact their top choice and say they also have other offers of admissions, and if true, scholarship offers. They can then ask the school if it can offer a better scholarship, experts say.
But there’s a right way and a wrong way to ask for money, says Linda Abraham, who received her MBA from what is now University of California–Los Angeles’s Anderson School of Management and now runs Accepted, an admissions consultancy organization.
“No arrogance. No entitlement,” she says. “Humility is required.”
Searching for a business school? Get our complete rankings of Best Business Schools.
More from U.S. News
Decide Between a Top U.S., Global MBA Program
Navigate a Job Change While Applying to Business Schools
Accelerate the Path to a Graduate Degree With a BBA-MBA Program
Become a Good Candidate for MBA Scholarships originally appeared on usnews.com
