The first thing you need to do as a business school applicant is complete the FAFSA, which stands for "Free Application for Federal Student Aid". It is the only form the federal government uses to calculate your financial need. It is also the only form you will need at most business schools, although the programs sometimes have slightly different formulas for calculating your financial need.

It should be the first financial aid form that you file in any circumstance.

Loans versus Scholarships

We have been asked many questions from business school applicants about scholarship chances since this website's inception. Since there are probably many more surfers who do not email us (we are unable to respond to all the email we currently receive anyway), we thought this page might make a useful addition to this financial aid website.

Here is the "skinny": You are not very likely to receive scholarships and grants if you apply to business school. Quite simply, the business schools believe you will be able to repay the loans with your post graduate business school salaries. They therefore allocate the huge majority of their scholarship funds to other, lower-paying disciplines such as theology and anthropology. 

Do not let this deter you from applying though. You will be hard pressed to find an MBA (from a top business school anyway) who believes his or her b-school education was not a good financial investment.

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