I have been asked by MBA 365 to shed some light on several topics: MBA tuition financing and who should apply to international MBA programs.

MBA Tuition Financing

Unfortunately I can’t generalize for all European business schools but it appears that most schools offer financing alternatives. What I can tell you about ESADE is:

“ESADE offers MBA Student Loan Agreements for all nationalities through exclusive arrangements with large Spanish banks to specifically meet your needs. The majority of MBA candidates finance their tuition fees through student loans from lending institutions around the globe. Spanish banking institutions show their commitment to ESADE Business School by providing optimal lending terms to all ESADE MBA candidates (regardless of nationality). Our partner banks cover up to 100% of the tuition fees.”

Every spring, a small amount of prospective MBA candidates are left with nothing but rejection letters and questions, mostly that begin with the phrase “What if.”  What if I wrote a better essay?  What if I scored higher on my GMAT tests? What if my grades were better or my recommendations were stronger? What if I worked for a Fortune 500 company to bolster my acceptance chances?

As Madhavi mentions in her post, strong extracurricular activities are a must for any serious applicant. Since most applicants to top programs will probably have a solid GPAs and mind-blowing GMAT scores, strong participation in extracurricular activities is one of the main places on your application where you need to stand out (in a good way, of course).

Where do you find a good outlet for your charitable involvement? One often overlooked example is your alma mater’s alumni association. If you’re not currently a member of your alumni association (or better yet, you didn’t even know one existed), sign up immediately!

MBA365.com is looking for MBA students or recent MBA graduates for the following programs:

Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, Wharton, MIT, Chicago, U Cal Berkeley, Dartmouth, Columbia, Yale, NYU, Duke, UCLA, Carnegie Mellon, Virginia (Darden), Cornell, U Texas, Georgetown, UNC, and USC.

You will become the official MBA365 blogger for your school!   Become a part of a growing community and provide visitors with insight into what it’s like to be an MBA student at your prestigious university.   Your posts will be featured within an exclusive community for your school (see cornell.mba365.com for an example) and your posts will have the potential to be featured on the front of MBA365!   Along the way, you’ll get some great notoriety and get some cool free stuff!

Accelerated MBA programs, also referred to as One Year MBA Programs, are full-time MBA programs that generally take between 12 to 15 months to complete. The term “accelerated” refers to the fact that students are able to complete these programs faster than a traditional full-time MBA, which typically requires a two year commitment. While accelerated programs are a relatively new phenomenon here in the U.S., most European MBA programs have traditionally followed this format.

Accelerated MBA Programs have steadily gained popularity in the U.S. due to the growing reluctance of applicants to take two years out of the workforce. Tuition costs for accelerated MBA programs – another major consideration for MBA applicants – are often a fraction of the cost of a two year program. Currently, over 90 accredited business schools around the world offer a one-year MBA program with many schools expected to add the option in the future.

A NY Times article describing the woes of the Venture Capital Industry interviewed a couple of VC veterans who had this to say about MBAs:

“The biggest names in the industry are concerned about low returns and are blaming several factors: funds that have grown too large, the M.B.A.’s that have invaded the industry and older partners who have lost touch with what is new in technology.”

[They] also attribute the venture industry’s struggles in part to the business school graduates who now populate Sand Hill Road offices, taking the place of the entrepreneurs who first formed venture firms.”

Recently, the Wall Street Journal surveyed over two thousand students and alumni of 48 business schools to access the quality of Accelerated MBA (One Year) programs. The respondents were surveyed on a variety of topics such as: program flexibility; career services; usefulness of the training; and whether or not their degree protected them from the recession.

The results were then used to put together a ranking of one year accelerated MBA programs. While the rankings themselves offered few surprises – European schools took the top three spots and Kellogg and Babson rounding out the top five – the students’ responses yielded some interesting insights.

Most respondents said that the determining factor in their decision to pursue an accelerated MBA was, unsurprisingly, the ability to re-enter the workforce more quickly. More importantly, most thought that their degrees prepared them to land higher-paying jobs and adequately prepared them to excel in a global business environment. According to the respondents, recruiters and hiring managers view the accelerated MBA degree no differently than a regular, two-year degree. Many also cited the ability to gain international exposure, although this was not the case for most U.S.-based programs.

So was the Survey a good one?

One could argue that comparing both U.S.-based students and European students was a major flaw in the survey – domestic students actively chose a one-year program versus a comparable two program, while many international students had little choice; a decision to attend a European school automatically meant that they would have to attend a one-year program. A survey of only U.S. based students probably would have yielded a more accurate overview of why students chose an accelerated MBA program and how they felt about their experience.

An even better experiment would have been to compare the experience of students in a one year MBA program versus those at two-year program – at the same school. The results could shed light on some of the more pressing concerns, such as whether some schools focus more of their recruiting efforts on two-year MBA students relative to their one-year counterparts.

One of the most important considerations for any potential student, but especially for an MBA candidate, is the cost of tuition and living expenses. With university costs skyrocketing and the job market remaining uncertain at best, a decision to go to business school has serious implications. The difficulty of this decision can be magnified even further depending on a candidate’s individual situation. For example, an older candidate may already have a family who relies on their income and might prefer to stay in their current geographic location. Alternatively, someone who is earlier in their career might have significantly more flexibility when it comes to leaving their existing career and choosing which school to attend.

A Business Week Article recently discussed the increasing costs of funding an MBA degree and ideas on how to help pay for tuition and other expenses. It was an interesting article and focused on how students need to be cost conscious regarding any decisions they make while attending school. Keeping a close tab on your budget and what your expenses might be before even attending school is something that MBA students should be doing from the start. Most students just assume that once they finish up school, they will immediately obtain a high paying job, in which they can pay off their student loans overnight. While I agree that most students achieving an MBA degree have a better chance of finding a higher paying job upon graduation, in this economy nothing can be considered a sure thing.

The GMAT is one of the most crucial elements to a prospective business student’s application to any MBA program. The following three steps outline a program that anyone can follow and hopefully have you on your way to scoring over a 700 on your GMAT in only 2 months!

1) Develop a Consistent GMAT Study Plan and Stick to IT!
Developing a study plan that will get you ready for test day is one of the most important parts of your planning for the GMAT exam.  Developing this study plan will keep you on a stringent path and increase your probability of achieving a solid score on exam day.  Steps to take in order to create this game plan include: