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:

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.

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.

Scholarship Essays must not only be interesting and well-written, but must address the specific nature of the scholarship itself, and answer in a clear, decisive way any question that may be asked in the scholarship application.  Sometimes these questions are very explicit: “Why do you deserve this scholarship?”  To be quite frank, even less direct questions, like “What does being a Polish-American mean to you?” or “What is the most important lesson you have learned as a high school student?” or “How do you think your education has prepared you to enter the field of engineering?” all require you to answer: “Why do you deserve this scholarship?”  Persuasion is the goal of scholarship essays.  Remember: even though there may be fewer applicants for a specific scholarship than for your favorite college, frequently there is only ONE winner.

Some tips to make that ONE winner YOU:

• Use very specific examples from your life experience (this may help you with your SAT writing section as well!)
• Adhere to the length requirements of the essay – your 500-word essay might be great, but will lose out when the word requirement is 1000 – or 250!
• Learn about the organization that sponsors the scholarship, and not just the basics.  You want to appeal specifically to the attitude of the organization.  Read the website, get in touch with employees, or, even better, last year’s winner.
• Make sure your style of writing matches the style of the essay question.  Some organizations ask light, informal, or even humorous questions, and others are deeply earnest and serious.  Don’t mix them up!
• Even if you write one hundred scholarship essays, don’t send out a single one without proofreading and asking a teacher or mentor to read it first.
• Don’t expect to do double-duty with your scholarship essays and win over the deciding committee; they’ll know if you just swapped a sentence or two from your college personal statement!
• Don’t lose out because you didn’t submit a neat, organized, attractive application!

Writing scholarship essays may seem like a daunting task, especially with the busy lives of most students, but remember this: the more essays you write, the easier it becomes.  Practice will not only improve your writing, but improve your chances at winning the scholarship you need to afford college.