MBA Scholarships: The True Value Of Financial Aid At Business School

As scholarships remove the financial burden of an MBA, more students are pursuing careers with impact. We spoke to students at Duke, Kellogg, INSEAD & Wharton to find out more

The real cost of an MBA, an amalgamated debt of tuition, living expenses, books, international study trips, and potentially commuting to class, can leave graduates with an accrued debt in the region of $100,000-to-$200,000 over a two-year period, sometimes more. Without financial aid, MBA degrees aren't cheap.

According to US News and World Report’s Best Business Schools MBA ranking 2019, studying an MBA at a top-10 US business school will command a tuition fee alone of over $140,000.

Among the highest are Columbia Business School, who charge $148,800 for their two-year MBA, Harvard Business School, where you’ll pay $146,880 over two years, and Wharton, whose MBA costs $144,600.

Although one-year European MBA degrees are often on the cheaper side, attending a top-ranked business school on the continent will still demand a hefty fee. London Business School’s MBA degree will set you back $107,000 in tuition alone, and INSEAD’s 10-month program costs $96,000.

It’s no surprise then, that post-MBA career reports often show consulting, financial services, and technology as the most popular industry destinations for graduates, as they scramble to find salaries that will enable them to pay back their student debt.

But in MBA Scholarships and financial aid, business schools hold the power to alter the salary-driven dynamic of MBA employment reports. By alleviating the pressure and stress that go in lockstep with such high student debt, MBA graduates are free to pursue careers in more socially conscious, naturally lower paid sectors, or launch their own businesses.

BusinessBecause spoke with four scholarship recipients to find out the true value of financial aid at business school.

Name: Heta Jangla
Business School: INSEAD (MBA ’17)
Occupation: Senior consultant, Dalberg, UK

Heta Jangla was born and raised in Mumbai, before she moved to Georgia Institute of Technology to study engineering.

She then held a multitude of consulting roles in the US with Deloitte, but after three years she moved back to Mumbai, taking a sabbatical year to work in rural development. She took a job at a social impact...