Financing an MBA Abroad: Where to Go, What to Know, and How to Borrow
You’ve spent a few years in the domestic workforce, hip to the ever-globalizing economy, and now your culture-savvy professional interests (inclinations?) make the idea of pursuing an MBA abroad particularly enticing.
Well, start researching schools and try not to let high tuition prices and poor currency conversion rates give you pause. With a few calculations and hearty, equal doses of research and realism, you too can join the discerning 2% of U.S. MBA students pursuing their degrees internationally (see BusinessWeek.com, 03/02/06, ). Think of your financial aid hunt—and the ensuing computations—as a refresher course in decision science. Virtual Beginnings
Start with the Internet. International schools’ Web sites often have a wealth of information applicants can frequent for valuable financial aid opportunities unique to their institutions. These sites usually have information about scholarships, fellowships, and grants available to foreign students, as well as loan information for international students.
Though it can be difficult for international students to secure loans at some institutions, this financial obstacle seems to be dissolving. In an attempt to provide more-flexible aid options to MBA students, MBA programs now make concerted efforts to enlist domestic banks and other international institutions as partners to provide U.S. students with internationally available loan schemes.
Begin your funding research immediately. As soon as possible, fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)—so you can apply for Stafford and alternative loans, which some lenders now allow domestic students to borrow while studying internationally—and your chosen institution’s forms as well, especially if they’re available before you even apply to the B-school. Best-Case Scenario
International loan programs aside, every student wants money that does not have to be paid back following a costly MBA program. No matter how much you’re making as a newly minted chief executive officer, you’ll sigh with relief at the absence of monthly student loan payments.
The International Education Financial Aid Web site features a comprehensive database chock-full of domestic and international scholarship opportunities and detailed grant listings.
Individual institutions also offer scholarships for entering and current students. INSEAD, with the original campus located in Fontainebleau, France, and a newer campus in Singapore, provides scholarships for diverse, qualified applicants who fit criteria such as Italian, Jewish, Iraqi, female, Sub-Saharan African, the best and the brightest, and fluency in Arabic.
Similarly, Oxford’s Said School of Business, an 11-year old school with 225 full-time MBA students (as opposed to INSEAD’s 882), provides extensive, internal scholarship information on its Web site. Additionally the site provides links to external scholarship information, in particular to the renowned, British government-sponsored Marshall Scholarship, designated for U.S. students studying in Britain.
Furthermore, though the 152-student International Institute for Management Development , or IMD, in Lausanne, Switzerland carried a price tag of $60,700 for the 2006 academic year and the majority (70%) of its students did not receive financial aid in 2006, the worldly school still provides unique financial aid opportunities. An affluent alumni board doles out scholarship and loan monies from a fund; the pool, backed and run entirely by IMD grads, dished out $900,000 for needy students in the 2006 academic year alone.
