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Making the Business School Investment

Rebekah Melville | July 25, 2014

If you’re reading this blog, you’ve probably already determined that an MBA is worth the significant financial investment you will make. It’s expensive, and there’s a big opportunity cost as well. We know this, but we also see the return on investment (if you don’t know how to calculate ROI now, you will by the end of your first term at Yale!).

You’ve probably already started saving for your studies, but you may be wondering about other opportunities to support yourself. There are a few different resources for you to research and consider:

  1. Institutional aid (aka grants/scholarships): Obviously, this is the best kind of funding because you don’t need to pay it back. At Yale SOM, all of our institutional support comes in the form of merit-based scholarships, and about one-third of our admitted students receive some sort of aid to attend the full-time MBA program. All admitted students are considered for these scholarships.
  2. External scholarships: There are scholarship opportunities outside Yale SOM that you can apply for.  We maintain a list on our website, but you should also research fastweb.com or Education USA (international students).
  3. Borrowing from Washington: For US citizens and permanent residents, there are federal loan programs to help fund your education. You are eligible to borrow the first $20,500 annually through the Federal Direct Loan (interest rate = 6.21%) and anything over that through the Federal Direct PLUS Loan (interest rate = 7.21%).
  4. Borrowing from Yale: International students can borrow up to tuition and fees each year from the Yale International Student Loan.
  5. Borrowing from banks: All students – although international students will need a US guarantor – may want to consider using private vendors’ educational loans. Rates can often be lower, but what you gain on overall cost, you lose on flexibility at the back end.
  6. Employer support: Companies such as McKinsey, Bain, Deloitte, Samsung, Bank of America, Pfizer, and the military all have MBA financial support. Research these and know your options.
  7. Post-graduation loan forgiveness: Working in the social or public good sectors? Avail yourself of Yale’s loan forgiveness program. Frankly, there’s no other MBA forgiveness program that comes close to ours – we provide $1.5 million/year in support to our graduates. Details are here. The federal government also has loan forgiveness programs.

We’re well-equipped to advise our admitted students through the financial aid process, and we’re always here to serve as a resource to our students during their MBA journey.  Speaking of, we’d love to talk to you at some of our upcoming events, and did you know that the application to Yale SOM is now live?  Now that you hopefully feel a little more confident about how to pay for the MBA, we hope you’ll consider applying to Yale SOM for Fall 2015.