Afford MBA after 4 years of IB/PE?

For people in IB or IB -> PE, are you able to pay for your MBA using your saving from working for 4 years? Are MBA programs (H/S/W) more open to providing merit based scholarships compared to their undergrad divisions? Thx

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You can probably afford to pay for business school in cash after 4-5 years of IBD and PE, especially if you factor in summer internship earnings and signing bonuses. Even if you have to take out loans, shouldn't be a big deal considering post-MBA finance comp.

Harvard and Stanford are almost entirely need based when it comes to allocating financial aid (there's no way in hell you'll qualify coming from PE) but there are a few fellowships available (I think more so at Stanford). These are incredibly competitive though so don't count on getting one. Wharton gives out some merit scholarships but isn't known to be particularly generous. Kellogg and Booth regularly give pretty substantial scholarships to PE kids because they're both trying to build out their presence in the space. No clue about Columbia but I've heard they have a reputation for being stingy.

 

As long as you're not blowing your bonus and living somewhat within your means, it shouldn't be too hard to afford it.

Basically you'd need 200-250k all in.

From my observations, merit based scholarships are hard to come by unless you do a great job on the GMAT and are going to a school that is a tier below where you could actually go. So if it looked like you were a shoe-in for H/S (as much as that's even possible). So I'm talking URM, 750+ GMAT, blue-chip work experience, great ECs, etc, you might get a good package from Booth/Kellogg even if you were working in finance beforehand. I don't see any MF PE guys/gals getting full rides at H/S even if they're profile is amazing.

 

thanks. I havent applied or got to look at the application page but do schools just give you scholarship if they like your profile / interview or do you need to indicate that you wanna be considered for the scholarship?

 

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