What are business schools looking for in MBA candidates for scholarships?

The best business schools in the USA are annually increasing their budget for their scholarship funds. Harvard Business School has a $31.5 million scholarship fund for little more than 1,800 MBA students, sias Fortune.com. This has significantly increased from the $22 million from around four years ago. However, the process of increasing scholarship funds seems to be a general trend in Business Schools both public and private, for example: Yale University School of Management; Stanford Graduate School of Business; University of Michigan’s Ross School; UCLA’s Anderson School and several others.

Business Schools are looking for candidates who will bring valuable experiences and unique perspectives to the classroom. The basics for setting the evaluation process are the undergraduate GPA and GMAT score tests. In order to be offered a scholarship from the Business Schools, your GPA and GMAT test scores need to be high enough. According to the U.S. News & World Report top 100 lists, GPA and GMAT scores have an overall weight of 25 %.

John Fuller, the former admissions director of the the University of Michigan Ross School of Business says that it is easier for someone with a significantly higher GMAT score (770) to get a scholarship than someone with a 670 GMAT score. However with that said, the GPA and GMAT scores are only a small part of the selection process. 
 
The financial aid director Ann Richards of Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management, says they try to achieve a greater diversity when distributing their funds. MIT’s Sloan School of Business, offers several scholarships contributing to student diversity, including the Class of 2004 Diversity Fellowship for students that possess unique educational or work experiences.


By: Alba Bregasi