Full-time MBA students at the world’s top business school comprise 39 percent of women & more women applicants are applying for MBA than ever before. To help with the financial stress to pursue an MBA, schools provide targeted scholarships for women.
MBA scholarships help remove financial barriers that can be one of the reasons for women not being able to attend business school, helping them develop the leadership skills, network, and confidence needed for business success. This will also help reduce your dependency on loans.
As for networking & mentorship opportunities, scholarship recipients get a chance to join exclusive fellow women in business. Below are some of the MBA scholarships available for women along with the tips on how to secure them.
The Chicago Booth School of Business offers the Wallam Fellowship to women who have strong leadership qualities and a commitment to strengthening more women in the business sector. This full-tuition award is generally for women from underrepresented minority groups.
INSEAD has plenty of scholarships for female graduate students. Women who promise to serve people without considering their social background or race are awarded $12,000 under the Groupe Galeries Lafayette Endowed Scholarship—in line with Groupe Galeries Lafayette’s values. If you are in fashion retail then this scholarship is for you, applicant are required to submit an essay on women in retail.
At least one woman in every MBA class of INSEAD is offered a merit-based scholarship worth $15000, the Judith Connelly Delouvrier Endowed Scholarship. You need to complete an essay on how to better include women in the business world.
Female engineers are offered the INSEAD Piet and Wina Van Waeyenberge Endowed Scholarship, worth $15,700 who successfully apply to the MBA programs. Although to apply you need to complete the Diversity Scholarship Application.
30 % Club Scholarship is a generous award of up to 50% of tuition fees, offered by London Business School to women who can bring impact on business & society.
A Higher Education Advancing Diversity (AHEAD) scholarship, worth $35,000 is a merit-based scholarship awarded to female MBA and Masters in finance applicants from developing economies. Another merit-based London Business School Scholarship is Carlsson Family Scholarship, worth US$28,000 for female MBA applicants.
The Kearney Australia New Zealand Women’s Scholarship Program, worth up to US$11,700 is a scholarship for all females who is able to successfully save a spot in the MBA programs in Australia or New Zealand.
The Forte fellowship is offered by many leading business schools in the USA. The scholarship is open to female students with good leadership experience, and the motivation to help other women advance in business. Applicants who are offered a spot to pursue an MBA in one of the partner schools such as Harvard Business School, Wharton, Columbia Business School, HEC Paris, London Business School, INSEAD, etc. are automatically considered for the scholarship.
Since its foundation, Forté has provided $226 million in scholarships to female MBA students studying at one of its 54 partner schools, through network opportunities, mutual support & scholarships the foundation is committed to helping women advance in business.
Nestle, a food & beverage giant offers MBA scholarships for women studying at IMD (International Institute for Management Development) Business School in Switzerland, worth $27,246. Women typically from developed nations are awarded these scholarships. As IMD is a part of Forte’s part school, any female student who applies is automatically eligible for a Nestle scholarship, among other scholarships. In fact, 79% of the women receive a scholarship of some kind.
Laidlaw Foundation is another organization that offers scholarships for women. The main agenda is to empower disadvantaged women through education. More than 300 women gain an MBA from Columbia Business schools with the help of the Women’s Business Education Scholarship provided by the Laidlaw Foundation. Moreover, the fund has been increased to offer full and half scholarships to women studying at Oxford’s SAID Business School and London Business School.
The program is designed for women that demonstrate leadership potential but are financially out of reach to enroll in an MBA program. An individual application process for the Laidlaw scholarship is followed by London Business School, Columbia, and Oxford Saïd with details available on each school’s website.
Here are a few tips to help increase your chance to receive the above scholarships.
First of all, start a thorough research to know the application process in detail. You should know what the panellists are expecting from the applicants & why the fund was created. This will help you focus your effort on the scholarship that is likely to be granted.
When you get into one of the renowned business schools, you are automatically considered for a variety of scholarships. So, it is always beneficial to which school offers what kind of MBA scholarships for women while working on your application.
For instance, Forte Fellowship is offered to women who exhibit exemplary leadership as well as a proven commitment to the empowerment of women in education or the workplace. So, it’s important to highlight how the MBA will help them support other women in business.
Many scholarships require a separate application process which can be tricky & complicated. So, a good approach is to apply for these scholarships as early as possible, also because schools have a limited amount of funding & applying earlier means being against few applicants which increases your chance to receive a scholarship.
Starting early gives you an edge to work well on your application essays. You should have someone look over your essay in advance of submission day to rule out the typos & grammar issues.
Lastly, make your application stand out through individuality by highlighting what makes your personality & profile more suitable for the scholarship. The panellist looks over several potential profiles hence, they would be expecting to see some highlights of what makes your personality different from other prospective applicants.
If you are planning to study abroad and searching to match your profile with the best-suited university, Experts at Manya – The Princeton Review have gathered important information of top Universities from abroad. Surely, this information will help you narrow down your quest for universities.
You can access accurate & authentic information related to rankings, application fees, average tuition fees, cost of living, scholarships, latest updates, and much more from more than 1000+ universities. You may also search for universities by name, country, or courses in common specializations, such as Physics, Finance, Business, Language and Culture, Agriculture, Environmental Science, Computer and IT, Media and Communication Marketing.
Manya – The Princeton Review offers end-to-end study abroad services encompassing admissions consulting services, test preparation, English language training, career assessment, and international internship opportunities to study abroad aspirants.
For more information, call our Study Abroad Helpline 1800 102 4646.
Book your Free Counselling Session now!