MBA Admissions Tip: Can I Negotiate A Scholarship for Business School?
Can I negotiate a scholarship for my MBA program?
When decisions are released, excitement among the applicant pool can be palpable. After months of hard work and significant introspection, many candidates are rewarded with offers from their dream programs. Some of those offers come with scholarships; money that helps defray the significant financial burden of taking two years away from work, while also paying considerable tuition costs and living expenses.
If Only My Top-Choice Had Come Through with a Scholarship…
Of course, many candidates might receive scholarship at one or two programs, but not at their ideal program. This leads to an age-old question: Can an applicant negotiate scholarship money with his or her ideal program? Schools often express frustration around negotiating for a scholarship that wasn’t originally offered, but the reality is they may prefer to negotiate, rather than lose a candidate completely. As such, many programs are typically open to the request.
You are in the best position to negotiate if you have a scholarship offer from a school that the program in question believes is a peer school, or even one from a higher tier. So, for example, if MIT / Sloan offers you a scholarship, then Northwestern / Kellogg might be inclined to listen to a scholarship request. You may not receive the equivalent of the original offer from the first school, but you may receive an offer that goes at least part of the way towards making up the difference.
If you don’t have scholarship offers from peer schools, you can still use other offers as a means to “bargain,” but you would be in a less favorable position to negotiate.
There are cases where you might not have other admissions offers, or other scholarship offers to use as points of negotiation, but some economic shift now means that the MBA program you want to attend is now more cost prohibitive. One example of this would be for an international student whose home country exchange rate has shifted significantly against the MBA program’s home currency. Schools may be open to trying to help out, a little.
5 Components to Negotiating a Scholarship for an MBA Program
Whatever the reason for your negotiation, there are key steps you must follow when drafting a request:
- Reiterate your thanks for the offer of acceptance
- Reiterate why the program is best suited for you to achieve your goals (make this more than just surface level; you need to demonstrate a true passion to join the school)
- Describe why the competing offer, or your change in personal circumstances, has made the opportunity harder for you to pursue
- Ask if they will be able to offer some form of help (scholarship)
- Thank them again for the original opportunity to attend the program, with the hope that you will be able to pursue your goals
This should go without saying, but it is imperative to remain humble and polite in tone; you will not secure scholarship dollars by threatening the program in question
Requests should be made in writing, either word or PDF, via email. You should try to submit the request to an adcom contact you’ve made through the process, which might include the person who called you, notifying you of your admissions. It can be helpful to include any letters of scholarship offers from other program(s) as an attachment, since many schools will ask for proof at some point.
It Never Hurts to Ask!
Finally, keep in mind that there really isn’t a downside in making a request like this; you won’t get much in life if you never ask! Of course, you will also have to be prepared to remain humble and gracious, regardless of the outcome.
MBA Applywire
26 M, Received Test Waivers for all 5 schools, Applied Accounting and Finance major. Former D1 swimmer and captain, Lgbt* , Strong extracurriculars (academic mentor, social chair for analyst class, career mentor and ambassador for early ID program at my bank).
Looking to move into MBB/ T2 consulting within fintech space or strategy and ops role at tech company.
Indian male
Spent 1.5 years at a bulge bracket in the India middle office, earned a transfer to the NYC front office where I was an analyst for a little over a year. Got early promoted to associate last year and have closed several public M&A transactions for my coverage group.
Planning to switch to venture capital post MBA, in the essays focusing my goals are impact investing VC funds which are slightly more niche but fit my overall narrative and story well.
Have several awards from college for national competitions (ideation challenges, debating, case studies)
Have some experience with angel investing as well.
Primarily targeting Harvard, Wharton, and Columbia.
Hi! I'm applying to the above schools & I'm hoping to be admitted somewhere with significant scholarship. I currently have 2Y 9 months YOE and was promoted twice at a BB bank (from analyst > associate > AVP) during that time period (also part of an LDP).
Had to step away in March for family caregiving duties, and I'm currently looking for another role, so I will enter the MBA at about 3.5-4 YOE.
I'm a female LGBTQ+ applicant, from SEA, though of Indian origins.
TIA!
Background
Canadian citizen
Indian Origin male, moved to Canada on my own after high school.
29 years old, first gen
College Diploma in Electrical Engineering (3.6 gpa)
BSc in Computer Science from Toronto Metropolitan University (3.72 gpa)
GMAT Focus: 695 (Q90, V84, DI79)
Work Experience
I've spent my entire career at FAANG company - Industrial Automation/Robotics, where I've been for over 6 years. I completed my undergrad while working full time, my company sponsored me for my undergrad and meanwhile also got three promotions.
Career progression:
1. Application Engineer (2 years) Started my career providing technical support and engineering solutions for customers. Worked directly with end users, and sales teams to help design and implement automation solutions, troubleshoot issues, and support projects from concept through deployment.
2. Business Development Manager (2+ years)
Moved into a commercial role focused on growing adoption of emerging technologies. Worked with customers across Canada to identify business opportunities, build relationships, develop go-to-market strategies, and help customers understand the business value of new solutions.
3. Customer Success Enablement (Current Role)
Currently in a national role responsible for driving adoption and success of strategic technologies across Canada. I work with customers, partners, sales teams, and executives to develop enablement programs, support major opportunities, and influence strategy around technology adoption and digital transformation.
Leadership & Community Involvement
Co-chair of my company's 2SLGBTQIA+ employee resource group in Canada. Formed this committee. Host quarterly events to spread awareness and promote inclusion.
Active member of the sustainability committee. Volunteer activities include tree planting, park cleanups, habitat-building projects, and STEM outreach.
Why MBA?
Short-term goal: transition into management consulting, ideally focusing on technology, industrials, digital transformation, especially around embedding Physical AI in manufacturing / robotics.
Long-term goal: become a senior business leader helping organizations navigate large-scale technology and business transformation.
Schools
Targeting:
Harvard Business School
Stanford GSB
Wharton
MIT Sloan
Kellogg
Questions
What would you estimate my chances are at each school?
Should Ieven bother to apply at each of HSW? I was told by someone that although I am Canadian, but because of Indian origins, my chances at HSW are slim since Indians are most overrepresented.
What do you see as the biggest strengths and weaknesses in my profile?
How can i stand out? I am still not sure about my goals, i am okay with both tech or consulting or general management but in tech company.
Which schools do you think fit my background the best? including schools other than m7
1. Diversity: I am an Indian Male.
2. Acads: I have a BTech-Mtech dual degree from an IIT (got admit here with like 99.9 percentile in 1M+ students).
BTech GPA is 7.3/10, which is improved to 9/10 in MTech. I am using optional essays to explain the lower acads in BTech. My MTech GPA and then GMAT Focus 745(Q90, V88) shows an upward trajectory, which should be helpful.
3. Work: I have 5 years of software development experience in a big european tech company.
4. Leadership: I don't have a formal title for leadership in work. But a lot of leadership without authority and my letters of recommendations from current and previous supervisors can vouch for that.
5. Why MBA: Trying to build something on my own exposed gaps which MBA would help me fix. I have a strong thread going on with my childhood, college, extra curricular and with what I tried to built. Post-MBA goal of Product Management role in tech would build on top of my skills I gain at MBA to help me move in the direction of tech leadership which is my long term goal.
6. Inclination: Schools which have good tech recruitment for PM role, help build leadership skills for my long term goals, have good alumni network in tech and PM roles, and lastly a collaborative community that I would prefer. I would prefer to get scholarships because of tight finances.
7. Definitely applying in R1: Kellogg, Haas, Ross, Tuck, Fuqua, MIT Sloan
8. Not sure about: Harvard (Not sure about fit), Stanford (low selection chances + 0 scholarships hopes), London Business School (keeping because of visa situation), Cornell (Tech is good but will it help for my long term goal), McCombs (Not T15 ), UCLA (Not T15)
Please help me choose right schools and strategy for fit + scholarships based on my inclinations mentioned in point 6 above.