Applicants to an MBA / MS program surely have their work cut out for them. Whether it’s about acing the GMAT / GRE or coming up with that perfectly-crafted essay / SOP or following up with recommenders, they have enough on their plate.
Coming up with an impressive application would definitely be a priority at this stage, however give a thought to how you intend to manage the financial aspects as well.
Compare this with an entrepreneur with ambitious plans for a five star hotel, but clueless on how to finance such a mega project!
A post-graduate masters degree from an international location, especially an MBA, can be a very expensive proposition, so explore the various funding options for higher education and chalk out a financial roadmap well in advance.
Scholarships are a great way to reduce your financial burden though not every applicant would be lucky enough to bag one. If you do fall in that list, you may find yourself in one of these 3 situations by the time you have got the application results from all the business schools you’ve applied to.
Take Initiative – There’s a reason the phrase “the early bird gets the worm” was ever coined. Taking initiative in your career and education will only help you long-term. Target one or more MBA programs and conduct research to be sure they will fulfill your needs. In addition, take initiative at work, increasing the scale and scope of your responsibilities so you can improve your candidacy when you apply to MBA programs.
Confront Insecurities – We all have insecurities. Whether you hate math, or maybe are afraid of taking the GMAT, make this the year that you meet your insecurities head-on. Take the time to evaluate your own candidacy to determine the areas in which you need improvement, and highlight how an MBA degree can strengthen that are of weakness.
Nurture Strengths – While we all have insecurities, we also all have strengths. Take the time to evaluate your strengths as well. Nurture them if needed, and stand proud of what you have accomplished. Be willing to showcase your successes and achievements on your application.
Prepare a Plan – Those who are better prepared will also be those who are most successful. Make a plan for the year including building in the time you will need to prepare for the program and take the GMAT, as well as writing a Stellar application. Don’t wait until the application deadline to apply. Space in MBA programs can be limited as can Scholarship funding.
Speaking of Scholarships, In little more than 40 minutes, they gave $210,000 away—to just six accepted MBA applicants from North America, Latin America, China and India. The scholarship grants—ranging from a low of $20,000 to a high of $40,000—were recommended by three admission officials at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. In one sitting, each of them gave away more money than they made in a single year as assistant directors in Rotman’s recruitment and admissions office.
With $4 million in scholarship funds—roughly 12.9% of the school’s gross tuition revenue—Rotman has more money than Georgetown University’s McDonough School and about the same level of funding as Yale University’s School of Management. But it still considerably trails most of the U.S. business schools, including such public heavyweights as the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, UCLA’s Anderson School, and Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.
So using the money as strategically as possible is paramount. “We just need more talent in the door and we are going to use every dollar we can to do it,” says Kevin Frey, managing director of Rotman’s full-time MBA program. “We are in this global talent game, and this is the cost of entry. We’ve got to spend this money if we want to build an impressive class.” After all, more than anything else, the quality of those incoming students will determine the quality of the school’s graduates– and the school’s ultimate reputation in the marketplace.
AWARDS RANGE FROM A ‘SHOW-ME-THE-LOVE’ $10,000 TO FULL RIDES
For next year’s fall entering class, the school expects to fill 350 seats. Half of the enrolled student body will come to Toronto with a scholarship, ranging from a “show-me-the-love” $10,000 grant to a full ride. The average grant is $20,000, and the $4 million kitty goes fast. So does an additional $1 million in financial aid to cover the interest costs of loans while students are studying for their MBA degree at Rotman.
On a chilly Toronto day in mid-November, the scholarship committee of the admissions group gathers for one of its first meetings of the new admissions year. It’s only 17 days after the school’s Nov. 3 round one deadline, the first of five cutoff points for candidates to submit their applications. It was a highly successful round, with a 25% increase in applications from a year ago. During an afternoon session in a conference room with stained glass church windows in the historic Phd House, the group will debate how much money to give each of six accepted candidates from that first round.
To be a fly on the wall of this meeting is to have a rare window into how a business school makes the often mysterious and always secretive decisions about who gets financial aid and who doesn’t and how much money they get. The process itself—along with the give-and-take of the school’s officials—provides invaluable insight into a crucial part of the admissions process that is seldom discussed nor publicly revealed. (Rotman agreed to have a reporter present during the committee’s meeting as long as the candidates’ names remained confidential along with specific details that would allow others to identify the applicants.)
EACH APPLICANT IS REVIEWED AGAINST FOUR CORE CHARACTERISTICS
To guide the handout decisions, there are a few well understood rules. Each candidate is assessed on four highly valued attributes:
Intellectual horsepower: Measured largely on the basis of an undergraduate grade point average (GPA), one’s score on the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) and professional designations, such as a Certified Financial Accountant (CFA).
Impact: A subjective reading of a person’s leadership potential based on their actual impact in the world, both at work and in extracurricular matters. The committee is looking for evidence of resilience, entrepreneurship, problem solving, and influencing others.
Professional presence: The committee assesses a person’s presence, poise and communication skills on the basis of an interview, all done by staff, as well as other interactions with a candidate at open houses, coffee hours, and MBA fairs.
Spikiness: Adapted from one of the world’s top consulting firms, a spiky candidate is one who has an unusual passion or combination of skills and interests that contributes to a person’s uniqueness and appeal.
These words and praises frequently spill into the discussions of the scholarship committee. Through it all, special attention is paid to two telling factors that the school believes are deeply correlated with an MBA’s employability three months after graduation: a candidate’s success in the admissions interview and, curiously enough, their score on a portion of the GMAT exam that typically receives less scrutiny, the analytical writing assessment test.
‘THE SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE IS A HAPPY PLACE’
After all, some offers will be turned down. No school knows for sure who will eventually turn up in later rounds. So if a school likes a candidate, the theory is that everything should be done to get him or her in the door. And when an admissions official recommends a $30,000 or $40,0000 scholarship, there is little thought as to how much the pool shrinks with each award.
