Ways to Help Pay for Your MBA

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Bloomberg BusinessWeek has provided useful tips on how to finance business school.

You can access the full article, but here are a few nuggets we gleaned for the article, supplemented with some of our own observations from the application and scholarship process. Some, if not all of these tips, could prove beneficial as you tackle the increasing cost of earning an MBA.

• Search for scholarships that you specifically qualify for. These could include gender, ethnicity, undergraduate program or desired career path. The article notes that Stanford has a fellowship program designed for Indian nationals.
• Ask other students and alumni how they paid for their degree. I hope MBA Connections will eventually be able to help with this. I secured half the funding for my MBA from Wake Forest by building and running a social media network for the marketing department.
• Give it your all during the application process. Schools often make funding choices based on exceptional essays and phenomenal GMAT scores. Undergraduate record and work experience also matter.
• Apply early. I found out that Wake Forest had a predetermined about of scholarship money set aside. The longer you wait to apply, and get accepted, the less money schools have available to award. I have never heard of a scholarship specifically geared to procrastinators!
• You can also offset the costs of preparing for business school. There is even a scholarship program built around the GMAT.

I certainly hope these tips help. I would encourage you to also make connections on our Facebook group and find out what other people have done to secure funding. Good luck!