Manhattan Review Blog - Test Prep, Admissions Consulting and Career Training

While the total volume of people taking the GMAT over the last year fell marginally from the year before, and again from it’s all-time high in 2009, the percentage of those test-takers who were women or from racial minorities grew significantly in the 2010-2011 GMAT season.

Below are some of the most significant shifts in the test taking population from 2011:

The percentage of female test takers increased for the sixth consecutive year to 41%, which is up from 39% just two years earlier.  The fastest growing group to mention in the GMAT pipeline is the under 24 year old population, which has exploded since 2007- reflecting the push for those seeking post-graduate degrees to do so more quickly than in the past, mainly due to the abysmal job market.

These changes reflect the larger trend in higher education for an increasing amount of minority and international students to apply and be accepted to post-graduate programs across the globe.

http://www.gmac.com/gmac/NewsandEvents/GMNews/2011/Nov/GMAT-Test-Taking-Reflects-Growing-Program-Diversity.htm

For MBA applicants, it is already well known that obtaining their advanced degree will be costly and most likely require some combination of loans, financial aid and personal investment.

Some employers still fund or at least partially fund their employees graduate business education, however the number of companies still practicing this has dwindled in lieu of the our current economic state. Unlike a lot of private undergraduate schools, the offers of MBA scholarships based on merit are much harder to come by. While many student loan brokers are willing to approve much larger amounts of money for graduate students than undergraduate, it is important to know that there ARE scholarships out there, if you are willing to do some in depth research into a lot of different organizations, both public and private.

However, because of the fewer business school scholarships out there, in comparison to other types of education scholarships, the competition is fierce. This means that making sure you are submitting the best application possible is paramount to giving you a chance at being selected.

Make sure that your essays submitted for consideration is carefully crafted to reflect the specific desires of each organization/scholarship to which you are applying. During application searches for broader undergraduate scholarships, it might have been possible to create a standard “form” essay that could be altered to address each application specifically, but at the MBA and graduate level, it is strongly recommended that you dedicate exclusive time and energy to each essay for each application.

Find nontraditional sources of scholarship funding. Look into organizations that are of particular/specific interest to you.Ask yourself these questions when researching potential sources of scholarship funding:

1)Is there anything non-traditional or that makes you an especially unique MBA applicant?

Many organizations exist to create opportunities for networking MBA’s within minority groups. These professional groups often have mentoring/scholarship opportunities for others following a similar path.

2)Do you have a specific niche of business that you are looking to pursue ?

Industry specific organizations are another great way to tap into potential scholarship opportunities.

IMPORTANT: Many of these smaller type of organizations may not have a a dedicated scholarship fund or review board, but they may want to to do a private act of philanthropy is your own career goals coincide with there own. It never hurts to ask!

Scholarship applications, like admissions applications, are time consuming- so make sure that you are not wasting your time applying to a lot of scholarships without a specific strategy or someone to advise on how to maximize your potential to receive them.

For more information, please read our MBA Scholarship Application Review.