Any distance MBA that will give scholarship for 640 GMAT?

I scored 640 in GMAT (80 percentile) with 90 percentile in verbal. Is there a distance MBA program where I may get a scholarship? I have 7+ years of IT experience, and 3.2 GPA from a top engineering school. Should I try for a higher score and apply to other schools?

I am in NYC and I applied and got accepted to-
Baruch
St John's
NYU SCPS for MS in management and systems ($4500 Dean's Fellowship)
NYU Poly - MS in management.

Did not get into NYU stern part time

 

Try for a higher score 680 won't get you anywhere IMO. Full 800 wont even secure a place in say INSEAD etc.

 

Most part-time MBA programs have very little scholarship money available - the bulk of such aid goes to full-time students. You may have better luck negotiating some sort of arrangement with your employer by which they pay some portion of your tuition and you agree to stay with them for X years following the completion of your program. Despite jackrussell's comments, a 640 is an acceptable score for most MBA programs, but it is important to remember that your GMAT score is only part of the package that goes into admissions and aid decisions. You may have better luck with aid if you target full-time programs, but then you will be giving up 1-2 years of work as well. The decision is up to you. Good luck!

 

Fortunato: yes, I do not want to give up work to pursue MBA full-time. NYU at $1400/credit seems expensive. Baruch is $495/ credit, but I could use some grant/scholarship

Most (reputable) online programs are prohibitively expensive. I do not want to accumulate too much debt in the process.

I was thinking, some online program may give you 50-80% off to take students with high GMAT, just to boost their average GMAT number. I know that they do it for international students (see pagalguy.com where ppl from India are getting 80-100% off based on 720 GMAT)

Thanks for the information.

 

Unfortunately you kind of answer your own question. If a "reputable" online program is expensive, it likely because they can charge what the market will bear.

On the other hand, if 80-100% discounts are given to boost the GMAT score then it's unlikely that they are very selective with their applicants.

Note that scholarships are often need-based; if you have financial hardship or need you might be able to get one.

 

here's a wet blankety thing to say...

I think that online MBA programs are cash cows for most schools. If their enrollment goes up then they just hire more adjuncts who, as we know, will work for peanuts just to have the chance to move into academia on a full-time basis or even as a consistent element of supplemental income. They are NOT going to offer scholarships to anyone. Ever. Regardless of your test scores. That's my guess. Has ANYONE EVER been given a scholarship for an MBA program, from the university? I'm guessing the answer it "no."

Maybe I'm wrong but . . . no, I'm not wrong.

 

I agree with this statement.

I partially agree with this, depending on the nature of the program. I have never been taught by an adjunct; all are tenured or tenure-track professors. Maybe that's the nature of AACSB vs. non-AACSB, or just the nature of the program's goals.

Um, sorry, but you're wrong:

http://kd.iu.edu/financing/scholarships.htm

While I haven't received one of these I have spoken with people who have. Note they're merit-based, not needs-based.

 

It's a common practice in B&M schools to give scholarship regardless of needs for high achievers in school and standardized tests. The IU also specifies GMAT as one of the credentials, but is this online?
:
Scholarships

Beginning in Spring 2010, merit-aid is awarded through the admissions process—no additional application is necessary. If awarded, applicants are informed of scholarship awards at the same time they are offered admission. Merit-aid awards are based on the following criteria, without regard to financial need:

Academic performance
GMAT scores
Professional experience
Application strength

 

Yes - Kelley Direct is the (mostly) online program from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. Two one-week residencies are required, but the rest of the program is conducted entirely online.

 

UF was giving away scholarships like candy to anyone with a high GMAT. Having students with a high GMATs helps you move up the rankings. Also I know several people with full rides in other top MBA programs.

 

edowave: could you tell me some of the other colleges you mentioned? I am hoping for 80- 100% scholarship

 

I hate to be a buzzkill but that is a wholly unrealistic expectation for someone hoping to earn an MBA through an online program. It doesn't matter what your GMAT scores are, that kind of aid simply isn't given to online students. For my program, for example, the maximum scholarship provided by the school covered only about 6% of the program's cost (and that particular scholarship was only available to international students who applied early in the process).

Perhaps it would help to explain a little bit about how MBA admissions works and how aid decisions are made. Most MBA programs receive far more applications than they have spots for, especially when the economy is going through a downturn like the current one. The admissions committee is tasked with assembling a class that is diverse in terms of student background and experiences. Aid offers are used to attract students whose background will add to the class in a unique way, or (as edowave pointed out) who will help their rankings. In full-time programs, aid is often not a scholarship per se, but in the form of assistantships where a student receives a (full or partial) tuition waiver and a stipend in return for spending X hours per week working for the university, usually as a TA or research assistant. Obviously, assistantships are completely closed to online students, who may reside thousands of miles from the actual campus. So you're left with scholarships, and as Kizmet pointed out before, most schools reserve their scholarship funds for full-time students and treat their online programs as cash cows. After all, full-time students bear the opportunity cost of lost wages during their programs, while part-timers are presumably continuously engaged in their lucrative careers and are adding the MBA to speed their climb up the corporate ladder.

In your particular case, the outlook is even bleaker re: scholarships. Remember when I said that a big part of the Adcom's role is assembling a diverse class? There are an awful lot of MBA applicants coming from IT and other technical backgrounds that you will be competing with. It's one of the largest groups in the applicant pool, in fact, and it's chock full of math geniuses who have 4.0 GPAs from engineering programs and blew the curve on the GMAT's quant portion. Most of these guys (and yes, the majority of them are guys) are not going to get scholarships to full-time programs, let alone part-time ones, because there are so many of them out there, the schools basically get their pick of them. That doesn't seem fair, because if you watch the MBA applicant boards, you'll inevitably see a 25-year old woman who has a 3.0 GPA and a 610 GMAT get a full ride to Harvard Business School because she spent three years after undergrad creating a small business that distributes mosquito nets to underprivileged children in sub-Saharan Africa. But such is the way of the world.

If you're really serious about b-school, you shouldn't be making your decisions about where to go to school based solely on financial aid anyway. You should be making a decision based on:

1. What you make now.
2. What you expect to be making two years from now without earning an MBA.
3. What you expect to be making two years from now if you were to earn an MBA.
4. What earning the MBA will cost you.

Realize that #3 and #4 are going to be different for every single school you consider, so they are the key figures in this process. The calculation is different for everyone, so I'm not going to lay out a formula or anything like that. But at the very least, #3 has to be greater than #2, or there is really no reason to pursue the MBA. #4 really shouldn't be a limiting factor in most circumstances, because the difference between your salary with the MBA and without should be significant enough to cover the costs of financing the degree, whether it be through student loans, paying as you go, or through some sort of employer assistance.

I know I sound gruff in this post, and it's at least partially intentional. You seem to be going into this process with expectations that are setting you up for disappointment, when a little bit of insight into how things actually work might help you make better decisions. The one thing you have going for you is that it's pretty early in the MBA admissions cycle, so you have plenty of time to learn about the process. I would suggest checking out some MBA specific boards, especially the one at Business Week magazine, to get a better handle on things. Good luck!

 

Just got response from Baruch regarding their business computing scholarship. This covers almost all tuition costs at current state tuition rates (requires full-time study). I think it's a good choice for my situation, and will not look into other options.

 

I was also able to pull it off with NYU-Poly AMOT program--at 50% off scholarship. I have a disclaimer, though: I work for the public sector, and have tons of volunteering and social entrepreneurship experience in New York City, and I make sure I emphasize that I can't attend graduate school without a scholarship/funding.