A recent article on Poets & Quants reveals that top-rated business schools across the country are offering increasingly large scholarships and discounts in an effort to attract the most promising applicants to their MBA programs.
The article, titled “The MBA Scholarship Wars: An Often Frenzied Pursuit for the Best Students,” states that more than $200M in scholarship funds are awarded each year by the top 25 U.S. business schools alone. This results in sizeable cost reductions for a significant number of students.
According to Alison Davis-Blake, dean of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, constant growth in international applications and an increase in available spots in global MBA programs have intensified the competition for drawing the best and most qualified candidates. Davis-Blake remarks, “It’s a nuclear arms race,” adding, “We see scholarship amounts increasing. We see more large awards. We see a broader array of students getting awards.”