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MARCH 19, 2001 B-SCHOOL Q&A: FINANCIAL AID Meet Michigan State's Associate Director of Admissions A talk with Bryan Moody, associate director of MBA admissions for Michigan State University's Eli Broad Graduate School of Management
Q: Bryan, tuition at Broad for the 2000-01 academic year was $15,300 for out-of-state students and $11,300 for Michigan residents, making Broad one of the most affordable B-schools on BusinessWeek's Top 30. How much do you suggest prospective MBAs budget for total expenses? A: For room and board, we are estimating around $6,800 per academic year to attend the Broad School. That's $1,500 for books and supplies, $2,400 for a laptop computer (obviously a one-time only purchase), around $1,900 for miscellaneous [expenses], and $800 for health insurance. East Lansing, Mich., is a pretty affordable town. Very often, [you can find] two-bedroom apartments for $500 to $700 per month. That's significantly less expensive than [apartment-rental rates at] some of the East Coast schools. Q: How much money is in your school coffer for institutional funding, and what's an average award given to a full-time MBA? A: We have about $1 million that we award every year. That includes the pool that we give to our incoming students as well our returning second-year MBAs. A little over $500,000 of that goes to our new incoming students. The purpose of our endowment is to recruit new students while still funding [current MBAs]. Depending on how competitive [a student's application is], scholarships run from $2,000 to $7,500 for both years in the program. Another popular award is a graduate assistantship, which is pay-for-work. Students essentially become employees of the university and are compensated with pay, rather than a form of tuition reimbursement. [Students] spend about 10 hours a week working somewhere in the business school. For an in-state Michigan resident, [the package is worth] a little over $10,000 annually, and for an out-of-state or international student, it's worth a little over $14,000 per year. Our highest award is the Broad Scholarship. We typically award 10 of these every year to the leaders of the incoming class. [Broad Scholarship winners] receive a graduate assistantship, plus a $7,500 scholarship. For out-of-state or international candidates, the award can be worth over $22,000 dollars. Q: Many B-schools discourage students from taking on extra work that can overburden them, especially in the first year. What is Broad's position on this, considering graduate assistantships are such a popular form of funding? A: At Broad, [assistantships] are strongly encouraged. In fact, there are always more students wanting an assistantship than we have available. In a typical year, 25% to 30% of the students have an assistantship. Q: How would a first-year find out about assistantships, and when is the appropriate time to apply? A: When [applicants] turn in their MBA applications, not only do we review them for admission, but we also review them for financial-aid consideration. The earlier in the cycle [this is done], the more likely it is that we'll still have significant monies available to award. Our deadline for scholarship and assistantship consideration is Mar. 30. Usually, [if that deadline is met] we'll be able to consider everybody in the pool for some form of funding. After that date, it's hit-or-miss. [Applicants] don't need to designate whether they're interested in a flat-out scholarship or an assistantship per se. They are considered for [all types of aid if they check] the application which asks if they want to be considered for it.
Q: When the school awards merit-based aid, what are some of the things that you're looking for in a candidate? A: We cycle back through the same factors that we look at when we're deciding [on admission]. We look for competitive work experience, a strong undergraduate performance, and also an adequate, if not above-average, performance on the GMAT. Leadership also enters into the equation for some of our higher awards. We try to determine who is going to end up being a leader, not only in the classroom but also outside of it. Q: For domestic students, federal funding is a great way to cover the cost of an MBA. What's the loan process like at Broad? A: We have a designated staff member at the university financial-aid office who works primarily with the MBA students. Once [applicants] are admitted, we get them information on the steps that they need to take in order to get consideration for Federal Student Aid. Anywhere from 60% to 80% of our domestic students take advantage of the Federal Student Aid Program. The first things [prospective] students should do is fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form or the FAFSA. Q: Is there a special loan program designated for international students, who aren't eligible for government funds? A: All students -- international or domestic -- are eligible for the funding available through the business school that we talked about earlier. We are looking at beginning a loan program for international students in particular that wouldn't [require] a U.S. co-signer. Right now, we have a very good working relationship with the financial-aid office at the university, and they have a lot of contacts with banks and lenders. Q: Does a large percentage of the Broad student population arrive on campus married or with a partner? A: Certainly, and it has been growing over the last few years. We have a very active spouse and partner group in the program, and between the first- and second-year class, [as many as] 30% of the MBAs here come with spouses or partners. Q: How should spouses go about finding work in the area? Are there career-assistance programs at Broad? A: We don't have a formalized career-assistance program here in the business school for spouses of students. We're a very large university, with over 45,000 students, so there are ample resources for students and partners to find information on employment. The Lansing and East Lansing area is a relatively small metro market, so it's a well-connected community, and it's usually easy for candidates to determine which companies they'd have a good fit with. At the same time, personal connections with fellow students can be very beneficial. We have a program every April for students who are admitted to the MBA program, [so that they can] meet some of their classmates prior to starting the program. This year, we're adding a whole component for spouses and partners of incoming MBAs. One of the segments within that program [will be] career placement. Q: If applicants have financial questions along the way, what are some of the resources that you suggest they consult? A: We've just created a new publication designed to answer many questions regarding the financing of full-time MBA studies at Broad. It's called "Financing Your Broad MBA 2001-2002" and covers the many forms of financial aid available to Broad MBAs: competitive scholarships and assistantships, federal student aid (including low-interest loans and grants), private scholarships and loans, and more. As far as [direct contact], we request that [admitted students] phone us, e-mail us [mba2@msu.edu], or stop by our office. [We will either] answer questions or give them our personal contact in the university's office of financial aid. It's a large university, so it's nice that [Broad has] this directed resource for our MBAs. Q: Some MBA programs don't have to parcel out resources from the main university and have their own financial-aid offices. What's the classic complaint from Broad MBAs once they're in the program about financial aid? A: If we hear a complaint, which is similar to the one that most admissions offices hear, it is that some students have a need that is greater than we can cover with financial-aid packages. There are some areas where we [in the full-time MBA office] aren't experts, so we're more than happy to form a partnership with the university financial-aid office and have them provide service to our MBA students. There are students in our program who are here precisely because of the assistance from the university financial aid office, so I'm hard pressed to find a common complaint. I would suggest to incoming students, however, that if they do plan on calling the university financial-aid office, they designate themselves as an MBA and make sure to call us for the contact there before doing so. Q: In your years in the graduate-admissions arena, have you noticed any financial gaffes common to a lot of MBA students? A: If you're planning to come back to school, trying to get spending money built up [beforehand] is a really good thing to do. Not only do we have an inexpensive tuition, but we also have inexpensive living expenses, so people can get by on a shoestring budget a little easier here than at some other places. Also, we do have a number of [first-years who arrive in the fall] and haven't been awarded a graduate assistantship yet. They expect that once they get here, they'll be able to find one, and that's not the easiest process -- it really does take some work. A positive thing to keep in mind is that over the last couple of years, our internship-placement rate has been very strong. Last year, every student [who sought] a professional paid internship over the summer received one -- we had 100% placement. So very often, students who might struggle [financially] during first year, suddenly don't have as many financial issues [after a summer internship]. Q: Do a lot of summer internships lead to offers of employment, and therefore, some kind of tuition-reimbursement assistance? A: Yes, those are becoming more and more prevalent. To help graduates pay off some of their tuition expenses, a number of companies tie some sort of tuition reimbursement or an earmarked signing bonus into job offers. Some companies have even gone as far as paying [a graduate's] entire tuition with the promise that the new hire stay with that company for a certain period of time. These are the kinds of things that a lot of the companies are willing to negotiate, and a lot of students are looking into. Q: Not all Broad students have the chance to complete summer internships. What does the school do for Broad's part-time MBA students? A: Our office only works with the full-time students, but I do know that most of the students in the part-time weekend program and the executive program come sponsored through their companies, so their needs aren't as pressing or as numerous as their full-time counterparts.  | | Learn about your online education options |
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