MBA Scholarship Trends at M7 Schools
Business school is an expensive investment, and it’s never too early to start figuring out how you’ll pay for it. Fortunately, business schools want to work with students to find a solution to financing the expense. Indeed, schools have always prioritized financial incentives to attract the best students to their programs. We’ve witnessed a substantial increase in financial incentives offered to admitted applicants we’ve worked with in recent admissions seasons. Therefore, we wanted to share our observations about current MBA scholarship trends at M7 schools.
MBA scholarship trends point to a sustained upswing over the last decade. The incremental increase we’ve observed is partly due to the rise in funding of advocacy groups. This primarily includes the Consortium (committed to enhancing diversity and inclusion in business education) and Forte Foundation (for women MBA applicants). Over the past few years, these organizations have boosted their scholarship support via their partner MBA programs.
MBA Scholarship Trends at M7 Schools
Among our clients, we’ve seen an annual increase of about 10% in scholarship awards over the past several seasons. It’s worth noting, however, that SBC has seen full scholarship awards for many years—even before MBA demand trends changed.
If we saw MBA programs consistently matching or increasing the awards because of concern over losing the candidate, it would be a sign that schools are using scholarships to offset application declines and fill their student spots. But, this isn’t the case for the top 20 MBA programs. A scholarship signals that the school wants you and believes you would add something truly special to their cohort. It does not signal desperation.
Therefore, applicants shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking the top business schools are using scholarship money to combat lower application numbers. Their intention is not to throw money at applicants until they say yes.
Request a free MBA advising session to learn how we can help with your complete MBA applications.
Here’s a snapshot of the caliber of expertise on our SBC team.
Ashley
Ashley is a former MBA Admissions Board Member for Harvard Business School (HBS), where she interviewed and evaluated thousands of business school applicants for over a six year tenure. Ashley holds an MBA from HBS. During her HBS years, Ashley was the Sports Editor for the Harbus and a member of the B-School Blades Ice Hockey Team. After HBS, she worked in Marketing at the Gillette Company on Male and Female shaving ...
×Kerry
Kerry is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS). During her 5+ year tenure at HBS, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a wide range of backgrounds across the globe. She also led marketing and outreach efforts focused on increasing diversity and inclusion, ran the Summer Venture in Management Program (SVMP), and launched the 2+2 Program during her time in Admissions. Kerry holds a B.A. from Bates College and ...
×Pauline
A former associate director of admissions at Harvard Business School, Pauline served on the HBS MBA Admissions Board full-time for four years. She evaluated and interviewed HBS applicants, both on-campus and globally. Pauline's career has included sales and marketing management roles with Coca-Cola, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, and IBM. For over 10 years, Pauline has expertly guided MBA applicants, and her clients h ...
×Geri
Geri is a former member of the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS). In her 7 year tenure in HBS Admissions, she read and evaluated hundreds of applications and interviewed MBA candidates from a diverse set of academic, geographic, and employment backgrounds. Geri also traveled globally representing the school at outreach events in order to raise awareness for women and international students. In additio ...
×Laura
Laura comes from the MBA Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS) and is an HBS MBA alumnus. In her HBS Admissions role, she evaluated and interviewed hundreds of business school candidates, including internationals, women, military and other applicant pools, for five years. Prior to her time as a student at HBS, Laura began her career in advertising and marketing in Chicago at Leo Burnett where she worked on th ...
×Andrea
Andrea served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at Harvard Business School (HBS) for over five years. In this role, she provided strategic direction for student yield-management activities and also served as a full member of the admissions committee. In 2007, Andrea launched the new 2+2 Program at Harvard Business School – a program targeted at college junior applicants to Harvard Business School. Andrea has also served as a Career Coach for Harvard Business School for both cu ...
×Jennifer
Jennifer served as Admissions Officer at the Stanford (GSB) for five years. She holds an MBA from Stanford (GSB) and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Jennifer has over 15 years experience in guiding applicants through the increasingly competitive admissions process into top MBA programs. Having read thousands and thousands of essays and applications while at Stanford (GSB) Admiss ...
×Erin K.
Erin served in key roles in MBA Admissions--as Director at Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and Assistant Director at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB). Erin served on the admissions committee at each school and has read thousands of applications in her career. At Haas, she served for seven years in roles that encompassed evaluation, outreach, and diversity and inclusion. During her tenure in Admissions at GSB, she was responsible for candidate evaluation, applicant outreach, ...
×Susie
Susie comes from the Admissions Office of the Stanford Graduate School of Business where she reviewed and evaluated hundreds of prospective students’ applications. She holds an MBA from Stanford’s GSB and a BA from Stanford in Economics. Prior to advising MBA applicants, Susie held a variety of roles over a 15-year period in capital markets, finance, and real estate, including as partner in one of the nation’s most innovative finance and real estate investment organizations. In that r ...
×Dione
Dione holds an MBA degree from Stanford Business School (GSB) and a BA degree from Stanford University, where she double majored in Economics and Communication with concentrations in journalism and sociology. Dione has served as an Admissions reader and member of the Minority Admissions Advisory Committee at Stanford. Dione is an accomplished and respected advocate and thought leader on education and diversity. She is ...
×Anthony
Anthony served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he dedicated over 10 years of expertise. During his time as a Wharton Admissions Officer, he read and reviewed thousands of applications and helped bring in a class of 800+ students a year. Anthony has traveled both domestically and internationally to recruit a ...
×Meghan
Meghan served as the Associate Director of Admissions and Marketing at the Wharton MBA’s Lauder Institute, a joint degree program combining the Wharton MBA with an MA in International Studies. In her role on the Wharton MBA admissions committee, Meghan advised domestic and international applicants; conducted interviews and information sessions domestically and overseas in Asia, Central and South America, and Europe; and evaluated applicants for admission to the program. Meghan also managed ...
×Amy
Amy comes from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where she was Associate Director. Amy devoted 12 years at the Wharton School, working closely with MBA students and supporting the admissions team. During her tenure at Wharton, Amy served as a trusted adviser to prospective applicants as well as admitted and matriculated students. She conducted admissions chats with applicants early in the admissions ...
×Ally
Ally brings six years of admissions experience to the SBC team, most recently as an Assistant Director of Admission for the full-time MBA program at Columbia Business School (CBS). During her time at Columbia, Ally was responsible for reviewing applications, planning recruitment events, and interviewing candidates for both the full-time MBA program and the Executive MBA program. She traveled both internationally and dome ...
×Erin B.
Erin has over seven years of experience working across major institutions, including University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Business School, and NYU's Stern School of Business. At Columbia Business School, Erin was an Assistant Director of Admissions where she evaluated applications for both the full time and executive MBA programs, sat on the admissions and merit scholarship committees and advised applicants on which program might be the best fit for them based on their work experience and pro ...
×Emma
Emma comes from the MBA Admissions Office at Columbia Business School (CBS), where she was Associate Director. Emma conducted dozens of interviews each cycle for the MBA and EMBA programs, as well as coordinating the alumni ambassador interview program. She read and evaluated hundreds of applications each cycle, delivered information sessions to audiences across the globe, and advised countless waitlisted applicants. ×
MBA Scholarship Trends for SBC Clients
Our client pool received $4.3 million in scholarship dollars last season. About 20-25% of SBC clients receive scholarship packages ranging between $10,000 to full-ride offers valued at $200,000. Also, we have had countless clients who received merit scholarships from 2+ schools upon admission notification.
When we analyze the profiles of our scholarship admit clients, we find that the high quality of the applicant always explains the reason for the scholarship offer.
Some programs have a reputation for generosity with their financial incentives. For example, Kellogg School of Management is often generous with scholarships because it competes with Chicago Booth due to geographic proximity. One recent client received $120,000 from Chicago Booth and a full ride from Kellogg.
Kellogg, UCLA Anderson School of Management, and NYU Stern School of Business have the highest per-recipient award value. The bar graph above shows the average award amount per program for our recent client pool of scholarship recipients.
MBA Scholarships Don’t Always Lure Admits
Money—even vast sums—doesn’t always seal the deal. We recently worked with a female applicant admitted to seven of the world’s top MBA programs. She had a 740 GMAT score and a 3.6 GPA, with an undergrad degree in engineering from a liberal arts school on the east coast.
She is Caucasian, from the U.S., and worked in urban planning, a non-traditional industry for an MBA student. Here’s what each school offered to entice her to attend:
- NYU Stern: Full-ride scholarship
- Chicago Booth: $110,000
- Dartmouth Tuck: $100,000
- Kellogg School: $90,000
- Columbia Business School: $90,000
- Duke Fuqua: $80,000
Her MBA application defined her leadership style within a male-dominated workplace. It also showcased her grasp of the strategic trends in the urban planning industry. She has had a lifelong passion for urban planning, and she wrote about how multiple aspects of her life represented a ‘path less traveled.’ As you can surmise, her overall application made her one of the most desirable candidates this year.
But despite the lure of a combined $620,000 in scholarship awards, she turned down all those offers. The reason? She was also admitted to Harvard Business School—her number-one choice. Even though HBS only offered $20,000 in a need-based award, she chose Harvard because of its strong network, global brand, and academic experience.
Can You Negotiate MBA Scholarships?
Sometimes, applicants receive drastically different scholarship amounts for two or more programs. They may receive a financial award for one school but nothing for another. In this case, you might consider contacting the AdCom to explain your situation.
We don’t recommend naming the competing institution, sharing your offer letter, or making demands. Instead, contact the admissions office to reiterate your keen interest in attending their program. Then, ask if it’s possible to be considered for a higher scholarship amount (or any scholarship amount) because you now have another admissions offer and financial incentive on the table.
@stacyblackmanconsulting #sbcyourfuture #bschooladmissions #mba #bschool #businessschool ? Vibes – ZHRMusic
Be prepared for possible disappointment, however. In our experience, clients usually don’t have luck negotiating for significantly more money or a scholarship match. One of our consultants, a former admissions officer at Chicago Booth, says, “My experience at Booth is that if you weren’t offered a scholarship at the time of admission, it was very rarely given after the fact.”
However, if handled professionally, you have nothing to lose.
On balance, there is still fierce competition for fellowship and scholarship dollars. Applicants must present a strong pitch for why they deserve a coveted spot in the program. That pitch needs to be clear and compelling enough to generate both an admit outcome and scholarship generosity, which is the gold standard we seek for many clients.
Image courtesy of Flickr user Tax Credits (CC BY 2.0)
If you’ve already been admitted to your dream MBA program and need guidance for financial aid applications as a US or international candidate, we are here to help with SBC’s Financial Aid Advisory service. Please email info@stacyblackman.com to learn more.
