Top Business Schools in US offer insane Scholarship amount to lure more Indian candidates

Sept 18, 2016: Two Indian students, Rashmita Redkar and Shreya Mathai were offered scholarships when they applied for MBA programme earlier this year, to get engaged with the top-most business schools of US.

Mathai got offers of $100,000 from Harvard and $120,000 from Kellogg while, Redkar got four offers — $100,000 from Harvard, $120,000 from Kellogg, $60,000 from Tuck and $54,000 from Wharton.

Later, both chose Harvard Business School. Redkar also got the chance to became one of the six students to get the Horace W Goldsmith Fellowship.

US Business Schools like they believe are the best in the world and are hence keen to get the best candidates. Apparently, they are finding most of their suitable candidates from India, reported Economic Times.

Other scholarship tales include Rohit Sudheendranath, who chose Harvard when he was bestowed with offers of $100,000 by Harvard and $120,000 by Kellogg.

Swagnik Bhattacharya was also offered a scholarship worth $100,000 by Kellogg.

"Scholarships have become more meaningful," said Rajdeep Chimni of Admissions Gateway, as the amount of scholarships awarded has risen around 33% among the top B-schools.

The University of Virginia Darden School of Business' Sara Neher, who is admissions dean, said that they are completely focused on providing scholarships to more students and Indians in particular.

"We are lucky to have very high-quality applicants from India. We would also love to see more diversity in terms of gender, work industry, undergraduate major," she added.

Consultant ReachIvy's students have received $500,000 in scholarship money in the last three years.

About 40 percent got some kind of sustenance this year, up from 35 percent last year. Merit-based scholarships awarded to Indians have risen across the board at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Virginia, Dartmouth and other schools. In the 2015-16 academic year, Yale University told ET it spent around $5 million (Rs 33 crore) of its own funds to support students from India, who numbered 179, third after China and Canada, mentioned Economic Times report.

Merit-based scholarships awarded to Indians have seen a high rise across the board at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Virginia, Dartmouth and other popular B-schools. In the 2015-16 academic year, Yale University told ET it spent around $5 million (Rs 33 crore) of its own funds to support students from India, who numbered 179, third after China and Canada.

In the 2015-16 academic year, Yale University declared that it has spent around $5 million (Rs 33 crore) of its own funds to support the deserving and talented students from India, who numbered 179, third after China and Canada.

"The average Yale scholarship grant was $43,989 for the 2015-2016 school year," said George Joseph of The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University.

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ReachIvy head Vibha Kagzi said, "Business schools have realised that an annual tuition fee of $50,000 is too high for many candidates. That number will go higher when living and other costs are added."

Delhi-based consultant Mansie Dewan said nearly 95 percent of her clients have got some form of aid from the top 30 US B-schools, such as Anderson, Kenan Flagler, and Emory Goizueta. Scholarships are up 40 percent from last year.

That's key to improving standards and maintaining academic rigour, said Narayanan Ramaswamy, partner, education and skill development sector, KPMG India. "An average Indian student is often perceived to be better than an average Western one," he said. "The quality of Indian students is just one of the reasons why foreign universities want more of them.

WhiteGlow consultancy's Rajiv Ganjoo said while scholarships have risen, schools are seeking quality candidates.

Several schools have also adopted a common-application model, which means students can use one form for seeking aid, making the process much less cumbersome. Kagzi said, however, that some schools still require students to apply separately for each scholarship.

Indians have always been the most preferred choice whenever it came to seizing the job opportunities in the US or getting a place at the top-most B-schools. (VOA)

– prepared by Arya Sharan of NewsGram. Twitter: @NoOffense9