FinAid -Your Profile - How to make it?

All the people out there who have secured a FinAid to fund your MBA, please share the following 1) Name of the School/University 2) Type of Aid (tuition wavers, scholarships, assistantships, loans etc etc ) 3) Percentage of aid 4) GMAT …

All the people out there who have secured a FinAid to fund your MBA, please share the following

1) Name of the School/University
2) Type of Aid (tuition wavers, scholarships, assistantships, loans etc etc )
3) Percentage of aid
4) GMAT score
5) GPA
6) Profile


Various posts in PG has a lot of info on who with what profile got what aid in a particular school. But this information is too scattered and really time consuming to dig out the details. Although financial aid might depend on a lot of factors than just the GMAT score, GPA or Work ex, these factors will give one a base to start with and will help immensely in planning ahead for the applications.

I tried searching if a thread already exists for than same purpose. All I could find was these two threads

http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/scholarship-options-25012207
http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/finances-available-for-mba-in-us-25007028

It will be great if all the 'done that' people could contribute their 2 cents.:)

P.S. Please abstain from 'This is my profile, What are my chances to secure an aid' kind of questions. This will only help in spamming the thread.

Hey MBA07 ,

It would be better if you are specific in your question.
I mean whether you want scholorship info on US Business Schools ,UK or etc.etc.

And seniors out there please help him out .From his profile it looks hes running out of time........

Thanks a lot for the reply Bolshevist. I am a middle class Indian who is obviously worried about financing my MBA and definitely not eying my fathers bank account for this purpose.
Hmm as far as the geography is concerned, I am Ok with US or UK, as long as I can fund my studies and bag a good job at the end of it. I mean to say a medium risk option. My priorities will be to keep the post MBA loan burden to a minimum but at the same time not compromising too much on the brand. I guess I could easily find a lot who share this view in PG.
One could easily find great posts on PG, giving insights on aids offered by various Universities and the profile of those who bagged the aid.
I am planning to consolidate information from various threads in PG of course with due credits to the author. Hope this will help a few.
PS: I have done a little bit of editing to help readability
Starting with Chandler:
Chandler says
There are two types of aids for internationals:
1) Scholarships
2) Graduate Assistantship
Scholarship is a tuition waiver which can be either partial say 50% or full. So getting a Scholarship does not guarantee a free ride. One still have to pay living cost and rest of the tuition (Incase of partial tuition waiver)
On the other hand a GA in a tier II school (e.g, TAMU, Terry, UConn, Penn State, Tippie etc) waives off your tuition totally and pays u a stipend that covers part of your living expenses so that u can complete MBA with a 5-6 lakh budget.
GA in a tier I school like Kelley or Maryland does not cover your living expenses. Which means u'll need a 15-20 lakh budget even if u gets a GA in one of these.
If expense is your major concern, target a GMAT of 720+ and apply to a tier II school with a 3+ yrs of experience. Trust me
You don't need stellar extracurriculars (I had zero extracurriculars but got a GA in all tier II schools that I applied, I have a lot of work ex though - 7+ yrs). In order to add some materials into ur essays, just involve urself a little more in your organization, e.g. in team buildings, annual functions, etc.
If your experience is less than 3 yrs, I guess u can offset that with extracurrics. I am not sure about this part though.
Todays 2 cents
mba_desigirl says
There is no single criterion for getting scholarship. Its a combination of your past acads, your GMAT score, the quality of your work experience, your value add to your company, extra currics, community service if any and most importantly your entire application including essays as a whole. Its the entire package and how you present it to the adcom. It always helps to apply in the first or second round of admission"
PS: BTW being a girl also helps as the schools are trying to increase their no of female grads to have a more balanced Male: Female ratio ....so that will work in ur favour
GMAT score :730
GPA:
Profile : B.E,Electronics, 3 Years of Work ex, loads of extra currics, active in community service
UNC (Kenan Flagler) - Admitted
Univ of Maryland - Admitted
Purdue - Admitted
Penn State (Smeal) - Amitted with grad asstship: this includes tution fee waiver+ monthly stipend...brings down my MBA cost down to a few lacs
Georgia (Terry) - Admitted with GA similar to Smeal
Univ of Pittsburgh - Katz: Admitted with full tuition scholarship in the first year and half tuition scholarship in the second year
MSU- Eli Broad : Waitlisted
Wake forest: Admitted with 10,000 scholarship
Got admission into Indiana - Kelley
Got Grad asstship at Maryland: brings my expense to around $27k per$ year.
Got $ 6000 schol at Purdue
Tried negotiating with UNC- KF for schol but was unsuccessful....so for UNC, I ll has to rely on loans if I decide to go there.
Todays 2 cents
mba_desigirl says
There is no single criterion for getting scholarship. Its a combination of your past acads, your GMAT score, the quality of your work experience, your value add to your company, extra currics, community service if any and most importantly your entire application including essays as a whole. Its the entire package and how you present it to the adcom. It always helps to apply in the first or second round of admission"
PS: BTW being a girl also helps as the schools are trying to increase their no of female grads to have a more balanced Male: Female ratio ....so that will work in ur favour
GMAT score :730
GPA:
Profile : B.E,Electronics, 3 Years of Work ex, loads of extra currics, active in community service
UNC (Kenan Flagler) - Admitted
Univ of Maryland - Admitted
Purdue - Admitted
Penn State (Smeal) - Amitted with grad asstship: this includes tution fee waiver+ monthly stipend...brings down my MBA cost down to a few lacs
Georgia (Terry) - Admitted with GA similar to Smeal
Univ of Pittsburgh - Katz: Admitted with full tuition scholarship in the first year and half tuition scholarship in the second year
MSU- Eli Broad : Waitlisted
Wake forest: Admitted with 10,000 scholarship
Got admission into Indiana - Kelley
Got Grad asstship at Maryland: brings my expense to around $27k per$ year.
Got $ 6000 schol at Purdue
Tried negotiating with UNC- KF for schol but was unsuccessful....so for UNC, I ll has to rely on loans if I decide to go there.




Hi ,
As far as I feel ,the amount of financial aid a student secures depends entirely on his profile and GMAT scores.Hence there wouldnt be much use if we simply publish the profiles of successful candidates.Instead it will be better if we ourselves post our scores and extracurriculars so that we as a group can analyse the same .

LET the bells start ringing with you , MBA07.................
Hi Zippie,
I hope you read my first post. I am fully aware that Aid depends on a lot factors. The only reason behind this thread is to act as a starting point to help all those people who are heading for fall 2007. I guess 2006 admissions are almost over and a bit too early to expect any successful candidates of fall 2007. To start of with we can look at how people have fared in the past years and use this info to decide on those schools that will fit our profile. Also I hope this will work as a one stop shop to discuss FinAid related issues.
Hi completely welcome the idea to discuss our profiles here.

Please share your views on the same.

hi MBA07, a very good initiative i must say. the info is too scattered i agree, but this initiative will succeed only if the "scholarship getters" post actively.

There are tonnes of schols for techno courses and very few for business courses. the philosophy behind this is that business courses are more "selfish courses"...ie, they contribute more to personal development and personal profit, whereas tech courses are targetted at advancement of technology and overall development. Further, business will not SUFFER in the absence of business scholarships, but absence of tech scholarships will definitely keep the brightest talents away. you dont need people in masses and droves to drive businesses, whereas the more techies, the better.

Coming back to the point, i beleive your gmat score plays a big role in getting a schol. Also, a lot depends on the profile of the school. A lower ranked school will be more willing to give you a schol than a higher ranked school. There will definitely be a tradeoff between probaility of getting scholarship and quality of school. I've seen ppl with very mediocre profiles getting big scholarships at small schools. Take note, Californian schools are least likely to offer scholarships. We gotta try and get feelers of which schools want us most desparately. For example, EMORY is an upcoming school and is (rather desparately) looking to up it`s average gmat scores of the class. If you have a really high gmat score, you might have a good chance of getting a scholarship there coz you will push the average higher. So basically, we should try and get such feelers about who`s looking for whom and what they`re willing to offer in exchange.

hope that made sense...i`ll be following this thread closely.

Hi Crash,

Thanks a lot for the insights. That made a lot of sense. Although I was aware of the various reasons why it is difficult to find aid for an MBA compared to an MS, fundas like schools trying to push the average GMAT up were new to me . Lets hope that the thread will pick up steam as the fall 2007 approaches. I guess we should invite PG gurus to post their experiences in the thread.
I guess the following short insight into the living expenses in USA will help a lot of people 'calculate' how much they have to spend each month in USA.
I have assumed an average Indian in all my calculations. He is the one who spends on essentials but neither a spend thrift nor a stingy person.
Rent: A single bedroom apartment in a good neighbourhood in a class B city costs $700 per month. This is semifurnished and you wont have furniture, entertainment, communication facilities. You have to spend additional money to get it. You will have a kitchen with stove and fridge, but not utensils.

Class A = $1000. Downtown is about 25%more. California is also higher by 40%.

Class B = $700

Class C = $500

Two people can easily share this and so the expenditure halves. Some places have a shared Laundromat, gym and basic recreation.
Food: Self cooking is naturally cheaper, but you need to devote time and skill otherwise wastage will get the better of your budget. Based on empirical method, I will put this at $8/day. If you eat out regularly, it could be $14/day. Roughly $300/month.
Utilities: Water and electricity works out to $20/month and $40/month. Electricity during winter will be around $100/month due to the heater usage. In Texas and Ari(d)zona, you will pay the same during summer. $100 max/month
Transportation: You need not buy a car in big cities, but in some towns and suburbs atleast 1 per house needs to have a car to reduce taxi-expenditure. Cost of gasoline is a varying quantity and wont comment on it. A 'good' car costs $4000, while a 'student' car costs $1500. Hitchhiking is illegal in many states and so drop this idea. Monthly pass in big cities cost $75 and all modes of public transport are covered .
Cost per month is $100, car or public transport. You can stay near univ and minimize this.
Telecom/internet: mobile phone typical $50/month, internet $30/month.
Overall: $350 + 300 + 100 + 100= $850/month. If you are conservative, then you must not cross this.
I saw that many universities quote $2500 as living expenses which are meant for American students with a high social lifestyle. You need not bother about it for personal calculations purposes, but for visa processing the consulate may refer to it, so beware.
Note: initial 2 months may be higher due to settling and 1 time investment like tables, chairs, activation charges for mobile etc.
Overall exp = $850 per month

hope this helps
Hey Pitbull,
These are some hard core info man...thanks a lot!
Could anyone please share some insights on the financial matters related to Visa. Like Pitbull said, schools will be quoting a substantially higher variable cost(living/travel expenses). Are we supposed to show in financial statement an amount similar to that is quoted in the i20? Should we produce the history of our bank account? if yes....then for how many months. Gurus, if you could explain these details by taking H/S/W as example it would be great (I took these schools just because the tuition and fees is on the higher side and most people - who are fortunate to get in - will be taking loans).
Also from a consultant I head that if you are financing the course completely from a bank loan(SBI/ICICI etc), and if the loan is approved, that's all the Visa guys look for. Your bank balance and history doesn't matter..is this true? How will this work out if we are going for a loan which the schools arrange.
I know these are a lot of questions. I humbly request gurus like Pagalguy, Samba to enlighten us
Thanks
Bol

hi mba07,

One important criteria is WHEN do you apply. There are various schools which have early application deadlines as early as Oct. So a person with average profile applying early has a better chance of getting in than a person with good profile applying late. Keep this in mind.

Regards
Yogesh

this post is for subscribing to this thread.

Thankx.

Azeem

1) Name of the School/University -Cambridge,UK
2) Type of Aid (tuition wavers, scholarships, assistantships, loans etc etc ) scholarship
3) Percentage of aid:- tiny 2500 GBP
4) GMAT score 710
5) GPA 3.4
6) Profile: software 7 yrs work ex

others;- got a loan from HSBC UK based on their tie up with CAM
Good work , dude !!! :-))

Hey guys a great work....Please keep this forum active...Please keep posting as many cases as you can...so that many people are helped with it...

I am aMech Engr and have work ex of 3+ yrs....Looking for Fall 2007....

This is for bumping this important thread back into action...

My G-day is on this 13th and I've not yet finalised my 5 schools..
Please help me out...
Finance is an important concern to me and it won't be possible for me to join a US school unless I get a decent schol...

So far the certainties on my list are::
1) ISB
2) NUS
>

Want to know which b-schools r decent on the schol front...
I'm targetting the top 30 school only...

From my research, I've found that Emory is pretty generous on this front..
Heard similar things abt Fisher (Ohio) too..

Can the gurus help on this topic??