Financial Aid In Top 15 Business Schools

Hi, I may apply to business school in 2-3 years and was wondering what the financial aid situation is like for the top 15 business schools. According to poetsandquants.com it looks like it costs 150-160k total.

I looked online and it seems there are 3 kinds of financial aid: loans, need based grants, and scholarships. It seems grants are harder to get for business school than in undergrad. I have 3 questions:

1.Is there an online calculator that will properly adjust the cost of attendance to inflation 2-3 years from now?
2.My credit isn't great and I don't know how much if any scholarship money I can get because I haven't taken the gmat yet, so what can I do to maximize the amount of grant money I get?
2.Let's say I have 20k gathered up so far; how much should I be saving for a top 15 business school per month if after taxes I take home about 5k a month?

Thanks in advance.

 
That_Aston:
With Ivy's I know for a fact if you demonstrate financial need, they are very generous when it comes to aid.

Even at the graduate level?

Regards

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so." - Ronald Reagan
 
cphbravo96:
That_Aston:
With Ivy's I know for a fact if you demonstrate financial need, they are very generous when it comes to aid.

Even at the graduate level?

Regards

I've heard of people still paying off undergrad who got help from some schools. Sorry I wasn't specific enough in my 1st.

Here to learn and hopefully pass on some knowledge as well. SB if I helped.
 
That_Aston:
With Ivy's I know for a fact if you demonstrate financial need, they are very generous when it comes to aid.
How can you demonstrate financial need when you're employed and have good enough experience to get into a top school? I think a lot of people will be stuck in the middle (too poor to afford $200k, but too well off to get a full ride) and will have to get massive loans unless they had the foresight/opportunity to save money in their early 20 (tough to do in most cities).
 

try to save up a third of your post tax salary (30-33%). that should give you a decent cushion so that you don't need to borrow more than $100k for b-school should you decide to go in 2-3 years. If you don't go to B-school, it will give you a decent amount of money to blow on getting married, opting out of work for a couple of years or starting a business/making an indie film...

 
Relinquis:
try to save up a third of your post tax salary (30-33%). that should give you a decent cushion so that you don't need to borrow more than $100k for b-school should you decide to go in 2-3 years. If you don't go to B-school, it will give you a decent amount of money to blow on getting married, opting out of work for a couple of years or starting a business/making an indie film...

The last two options sound way better than the first two

 

After doing some detailed calculations based on Relenquis' advice, it looks like with the 20k I could gather up and saving 30k after 2 years I am still left with 100k to pay. I guess this is where the schools will look at financial need and hopefully toss me a bone.

Looks like it's time to save even more. Good thing I don't have a girlfriend right now.

 

Quit your job, liquidate all of your assets, and put it all on red. If you win, you don't need to go to B-School. If you lose, you will get a full ride to B-School as you will be poor. It's a win-win scenario.

 
Best Response
  1. Add 2% per year. Tuition will go up, but only slightly. Since I have been keeping track for last 4-5 years, it's always been around that 50K/yr. Add that 2% just to be safe, and will also apply to Cost of Living.
  2. There is just not that much grant money floating around (depends on school though). They are more likely to use it on someone they want (e.g. minority female) rather than your typical White/Asian male. Same with scholarships (unless you go to a much lower tier of school). If you are going to the best school you can get in, chances are you won't get anything. And if you are making $85K~/year, there is no way you will get any grant cause you are poor (most students don't come in at that level). You can quit your job and become a high school teacher or something if you want to lower your income to get some grants for financial need.
  3. No point trying really (if you want to pay off all $150K with $5K/month salary). Lets say you do. Then you need 130K more, assume 10k as investment gain (very safe assumption, cause you won't put it all in penny stocks). So 120K in 2-3 years, or 3.3K-5K/month. Either you can spend nothing out of your paycheck for next 2 years or just pay for rent or something for 3 years. Take some steps to reduce the burden (e.g. pay off your car if you go to a school where you need a car) and save whatever you can (no fancy trips). But just get used to the idea that you will be paying off a sizable chunk for however many years.
 

There is a little bit of misinformation on this thread. I am matriculating at an MBA business schools ">M7 next this coming fall. Most of the top bschools have merit-based aid. However, this is not merit in the sense of only gmat/gpa, but merit in the sense that the school uses it to attract the candidates it deems most desirable.

Need-based aid varies by school, with HBS students receiving about ~30k in total (if I remember correctly) and Chicago Booth not giving any. However, need-based aid by school is easily researched, as it is something schools love to brag about. Another good indicator is the average debt load of graduating MBAs, which is published by most, but not all, top schools.

How much to save all depends on your personal discount rate, if you take home $5k per month after taxes in your first year of work, you are doing quite well. If you're really making that much money, you should have no problem saving at quite a bit in 3 years.

 

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