Financing Your MBA

How to Finance Your MBA

Unless you have a rich uncle or significant lottery winnings, paying for your education requires careful thought and planning. Few students can afford to write a check for the full amount of tuition. In 2007-2008, 75% of all graduate and professional students received federal financial aid.

Federal loans, private loans, grants, scholarships, military tuition assistance and employer tuition assistance are all possible forms of financial aid to pay for your advanced business degree.

For those who cannot simply write a check, the first step to receiving financial aid of any kind is completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. Online applications are a streamlined process, one that you can navigate through with many opportunities to get more information or clarification. You can save your application at any point and come back to it later for additions or corrections, and once finalized you may sign it digitally and submit it electronically.

Since most students would like an idea of eligibility amounts for budgeting decisions earlier than the FAFSA can provide, visit the fafsa4caster. This will provide only an estimate of federal dollars you may be eligible for, not the state or college-specific award opportunities that you might get. However, it is a good starting place, and any information you enter and want to keep can be electronically transferred to your official FAFSA application with just a click.