First of all, let me start by telling you that the average salary of MBA graduates in 2020 is $137,890 according to U.S News and World Report, and some graduates even earn higher.
There is no doubt that an MBA comes with lots of advantages, companies are dying to have someone that can lead them in so many sectors, and it doesn’t matter what you studied as your Undergraduate. In MBA schools you will be trained to lead companies, to see the challenges most companies face, and how to successfully handle them.
These MBA degrees have several specialties that you can focus on, you can choose to focus on MBA in Healthcare especially if you graduated from any of the health fields. Or you can even choose to focus on a project management MBA, especially if you did a baccalaureate in project management, business, engineering, or anything related.
You’ll learn why many businesses fail and why few succeed, and you will learn to build and sustain business no matter the condition. So there are lots and lots of benefits that come with enrolling in MBA programs.
Moreover, even though an MBA degree could be expensive, once you’re done with it, “BOOM,” you can bounce back even stronger. But does that mean you should go into serious debt, just because you want to pursue an MBA degree?
No, there is a way around it, through scholarships for MBA abroad, which can enable you to start and complete your MBA without outrightly paying for your fees. These scholarships can pay part or all of your tuition fee, plus other fees, and they are for both domestic and international students.
Before we go straight to see these scholarships for MBA students abroad, let’s see some requirements to get a full scholarship in these schools.
Requirements for a Full Scholarship for MBA Abroad
Most Merit-based scholarships don’t require you to submit any extra scholarship application, once you have submitted your admission application, you’ll be considered for different kinds of merit-based scholarships. Anyone you qualify for will be awarded alongside your admission.
To be eligible for Merit-based scholarships for an MBA degree abroad, you need to show excellence in academics, in your profession, or your excellence to service to the community. So, Merit-based scholarships will be considering your GPA, your awards, your recognition in your company and so many others.
However, here are some requirements you still need to submit in some cases, especially in need-based scholarships.
- Official Bachelor’s degree transcript from an accredited college.
- A brilliant GPA from your baccalaureate degree, at least 3.0
- A GMAT or GRE result is not compulsory for some schools
- An interview
- Might request a bank statement, especially for need-based scholarships.
There could be more requirements from these schools.
Now, let’s dive into these scholarships for MBA abroad and resident students.
Scholarships for MBA Abroad
We focused this list on top MBA schools that provide quality scholarships, especially in the United States, the UK, Canada, Spain, and France.
1. Graduate School of Stanford Business Scholarships (USA)
Stanford Business School is the best business school in the world, according to QS World University Rankings, and they have lots of MBA financial aid. Their financial aid and MBA scholarships are available to everyone, whether you’re a United States citizen or you’re an international student.
They offer;
- Stanford GSB Need-Based Fellowships: where you’re awarded approximately $42,000 per year scholarship from their community.
- Stanford GSB BOLD Fellows Fund: This also adds to their financial aid to both citizens and abroad students, where they consider students with financial hardship.
- Stanford Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program: This scholarship selects up to 100 newly admitted graduate students, and any student from any country can apply.
2. Harvard MBA Scholarship (USA)
Harvard Business School is the 2nd best business school in the world, and they offer amazing scholarships for MBA abroad. Both the U.S residents and international students can take advantage of their scholarships, and they made it possible that everyone can get an equal advantage to scholarships regardless of where they’re coming from.
They offer upto $40,000 yearly scholarship to their MBA students, and their students also have the opportunity to go for Student loans and get extra funding through HBS Complementary Fellowships. You will get access to any of their scholarships after you have been admitted.
3. NYU Stern School of Business Scholarships (USA)
NYU scholarships offer both full and half-tuition awards for MBA abroad and domestic students. You also don’t need any additional application to be considered for this scholarship, the requirements during your admission take care of it all.
You’ll notice if you’re awarded a Merit-based scholarship in your admission letter. Their Dean’s Scholarship is awarded to a few students that are excellent in some areas, and it is a fully-funded scholarship.
Their Named Faculty Scholarship is also a Merit-based fully-funded scholarship, there are so many other Merit-based scholarships. There are also other means of scholarships, whether through need-based, or external means.
4. London Business School Scholarships (London)
This is one of the schools that offer lots of MBA scholarships to both U.S. citizens and abroad students. They offer;
- The 30% Club Scholarship EMBA: Where they help EMBA females to pay 25% to 50% of their full tuition fee.
- iSchoolConnect Scholarship: This scholarship is available to anyone that applies.
- Mo Ibrahim Foundation Scholarship: This takes care of the 100% tuition fee of an MBA student that is from Africa Country.
- The Service and Society Scholarship: Available to all applicants, and it awards scholarships up to £50,000.
And many more, there are up to 100 scholarships for MBA abroad and financial aid from London Business School.
5. HEC Paris MBA Scholarship (France)
Any candidate that applies to the HEC Paris MBA program is automatically considered for their Excellence and Diversity scholarship, which can pay up to half of your tuition. There are also other scholarships like Forte and L’Oreal (up to € 26,000) that will require you to submit a scholarship essay immediately after you have submitted your MBA program application.
There is also the HEC Paris MBA Scholarship For Diversity and the 30% Club Scholarship.
6. IE Business School Scholarships (Spain)
IE has lots of ways to award scholarships to their MBA students from abroad. They have scholarships that are open to every candidate, such as:
- IE Scholarship which can take care of 10% to 40% of your tuition fee
- IE³ Collaboration Scholarship, where you’re offered financial aid in exchange for your participation in IE’s project. It can cover up to 75% of your tuition.
- IE Talent Scholarship, where those skilled in sports, art, tech, or social commitment are awarded up to 30% of tuition fee.
And many more scholarships are open to all. They also offer other kinds of scholarships like Diversity-based, values-based, program-based, direct award, and partners.
In their partner Scholarships, Fulbright Award is one of the partners, where citizens of the United States, can compete and win 100% of their tuition fee.
7. Columbia MBA Scholarships (USA)
This Business School offers partial tuition scholarships to students that qualified whether you’re a U.S citizen, an EU resident, or an international student. Most of their scholarships are need-based, that means you have to apply to be considered for their scholarship, and they award a scholarship between $7,500–$30,000.
They also have room for merit-based scholarships and external scholarships.
8. Michigan Ross MBA Scholarship
Immediately you’ve applied to Michigan Ross Business School, you’re automatically considered for more than 200 Merit-based scholarships. When you’re awarded any of these scholarships, you’ll be notified alongside your admission letter.
Eligibility for Merit-based scholarships is strictly based on your academic abilities, your professional achievements, your personal achievements, and how likely you’re to contribute to their community.
Michigan scholarships for MBA abroad and domestic students range from $10,000 to full tuition. Their Merit-based scholarships include
- The Dean Impact Scholars, which is a fully-funded scholarship for both domestic and international students that are outstanding.
- Dean’s Fellows, which also takes care of your full tuition.
And many more other Merit-based scholarships.
9. Saïd MBA Scholarship (Oxford, United Kingdom)
Funding in Saïd is very competitive, that’s why you are given the privilege to access all funding options, whether it’s internal or external. Saïd offers One of the best MBA scholarships in the United Kingdom to their DPhil students, where they are awarded a fully-funded scholarship for more than 4 years, and it goes a long way to cover their living expenses.
They also have other scholarships under Executive MBA.
10. Saint Mary’s MBA Scholarships (Canada)
Saint Mary offers one of the best MBA scholarships in Canada, if you’re a citizen in Canada, or have permanent resident status then you can walk away with their newly launched Sobey MBA scholarship worth $30,000. You will also be eligible for an entrance scholarship which is between 1,000 CAD to 10,000 CAD, you also have the opportunity for more scholarships in your second year.
In addition, they offer many other scholarships.
11. Haas MBA Scholarships (USA)
Haas offers scholarships for MBA students abroad and U.S citizens, in the form of merit-based and need-based. In Haas MBA scholarships, you don’t need to submit an application to be considered (unless stated in the application), if you’re found worthy, you’ll be awarded.
There are also other scholarships for those in their 2nd year MBA program.
12. Ivey MBA scholarships (Canada)
Ivey offers a huge scholarship funding, they award their students whether domestic or abroad students scholarships ranging from $10,000 to $65,000. Another interesting thing about their scholarship is, that even if you have not been admitted, you can also apply along with the admission application.
Furthermore, they offer other external and fellowship scholarships for MBA abroad.
13. The University of Chicago Booth MBA Scholarships (USA)
The University of Chicago offers different kinds of scholarships to their domestic and International Students, you can choose their merit-based scholarships, Global Innovator Fellowships, or other scholarships.
14. Birmingham MBA Scholarships (UK)
Birmingham offers diverse scholarships to UK citizens and International students, and it is worth upto 50% of your tuition fee. They also have African MBA scholarship where students from African continent are awarded a full-fees scholarship.
There is the Claire and Sean Henry Scholarship where students from India are awarded full-fees scholarships.
15. Melbourne MBA Scholarships (Australia)
Melbourne offers a range of scholarships for MBA abroad and their domestic students. You can either choose their BP Australia Scholarship in Business Analytics, where all applicants are eligible for $25,000 worth of scholarship.
Their Clemenger BBDO Scholarship is worth $50,000 and all applicants are also welcomed. They also have the Diversity Excellence Scholarships, Helen Macpherson Smith Fellowship, Kraft Heinz Scholarship and many more.
16. UCLA Anderson School of Management (USA)
Most Students at UCLA depend on scholarships or other form of financial aid for their fees, so you’re not alone. That’s why UCLA automatically considers entry students for merit scholarships and donor fellowships before they are admitted.
Second-year students can also apply for Graduate Teaching Assistants or Research Assistants, where part of their fees will be reduced. You can also take advantage of other scholarships provided by UCLA, such as – external scholarships, Forté Fellowship, ROMBA Fellowships, and many more.
17. Kellogg School of Management (USA)
Kellogg offers lots of Merit-based scholarships to U.S citizens and abroad students, you will see scholarships for African students, JD-MBA students, Finance Fellows, Forté Foundation Scholarship, and many more merit scholarships. They also have need-based scholarships only for U.S. citizens and permanent resident students, and these need-based scholarships can be renewed in the second year.
18. Alberta MBA Scholarships (Canada)
Over $1 million yearly is available to help MBA students abroad and domestic students fund their fees. They automatically consider all students that are admitted to their MBA program for up to a $15,000 entrance award. They also have other additional funding options.
19. Brunel MBA Scholarships (London)
Brunel Business school has so many scholarships for UK resident students and international students. They have the full-time MBA scholarship, where £6,000 is waived out of your tuition fee for one year.
They also have the African Continent MBA Scholarship, where a 50% tuition fee (£12,497.5) is waived for 1 year.
Their is also the Full-Time Women in Leadership MBA Scholarship, The Part-Time MBA Scholarship, and 40 other scholarship options.
20. Judge Business School (Cambridge, UK)
Cambridge offers lots of scholarships for MBA domestic and abroad students. They have The Wider Cambridge MBA Scholarship for Regional Diversity which is worth £30,000, and The Wider Cambridge MBA Scholarship for Professional Diversity, which is also worth £30,000.
In fact, most of their scholarships are worth £30,000, but are awarded to few students.
21. Yale School of Management Scholarship (USA)
Yale considers all MBA applicants for Merit-based scholarships, so you don’t need to submit any other application for this kind of scholarship. There are also other external scholarships you can take advantage of, whether it is Bank of America Merrill Lynch MBA Diversity Fellowship Program (worth $40,000 of total tuition).
Or any of their handful external scholarships.
22. IESE MBA Scholarships (Spain)
This is one of the schools that manage up to €20 million in financial aid and scholarships for MBA abroad, yearly. They are also eligible for US Federal and private loans. They award an average scholarship of €23,000.
IESE MBA has other scholarships, such as;
- IESE Trust Scholarship
- IESE Excellence Scholarship
- IESE Women Leaders Scholarships
- IESE Leaders in Africa Scholarship
And many more.
23. Esade MBA Scholarship (Spain)
Esade offers merit-based scholarships of 10% to 50% of tuition fee to all applicants, need-based scholarship of 50% to 80% of your MBA tuition fee, and so many other partnership scholarships. They are partnering with Forté Foundation to award a Fellowship Program up to €20,000, they also partner with Alfa Consulting to award students full-time MBA, and many more partners.
Conclusion
Now you have seen the best scholarships for MBA students abroad, it’s now left for you to choose which one to go for. Whether it’s a fully-funded NYU Stern MBA scholarship or Stanford University MBA partly-funded scholarship, or anyone at all.
The choice is up to you.
Scholarships for MBA Abroad – FAQs
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