When you are researching financial aide available to MBA students, you will quickly find that Federal Financial Aid is limited once you graduate from an undergraduate program. While there are Federal loans available for graduate students who are pursuing their MBA, not everyone wants to dig themselves into debt just to earn an advanced degree to compete in the job market. There are, however, alternatives to Federal grants and loans that force you to pay high interest rates. If you would like to receive money for graduate school without being forced to make repayments, there may be scholarships that you can compete for. The scholarships are based on your academic performance, your major, GMAT test scores and other factors surrounding your financial status. 

Merit Based Scholarships and How to Find Them

All too often, people assume that only undergraduate students are eligible for merit-based scholarships. Contrary to popular belief, MBA applicants may also be able to qualify for scholarship awards based on their merit as an undergraduate student or based on their test scores when taking the GMAT exam. A majority of the scholarship opportunities that exist for MBAs are not advertised, so it is in your best interest to research all of the possibilities.

Perform searches with keywords like “MBA”, your gender, and your concentration of choice to look for unadvertised opportunity. It is also in your best interest to aim for scholarship money when you take your GMAT entrance exam. The Beat the GMAT competition is a annual non-renewable competitive award granted to winners who have a financial need and professional references. You may be eligible for one of eight different packages that will pay for registration, test-prep and admissions consulting, according to Business Week.

Related Resource: Qualities of an MBA Student

School Specific Scholarship Opportunities

If you cannot locate any public opportunities that you are eligible for, do not fret. There are also school-specific opportunities that you may not even know about until you receive an award notification. You should do your research before you fill out your admissions application so that you know what is out there before submitting applications. You should always write the best possible essays and highly your work experience. By doing this, you may be selected for scholarships that are granted to students solely based on their applications. In addition to a strong application, you also need to strengthen your interview skills so that you stand apart. Business schools raise scholarship funds regularly, and they are looking for students who will make a difference to award these funds to.

The key is to do your research so that you can locate all of the MBA scholarships that you will qualify for. Sign up for notifications, perform searches, attend college fairs and use scholarship search databases to look specifically for MBA opportunities. In addition to performing searches, you should also look for school specific opportunities available through schools who are competing for the best talent. Now that you know there are scholarships available for MBA degrees, it is time to start searching.