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Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: Apocalyptica602 on June 28, 2016, 08:21:02 AM

Title: Pursuing Adult Scholarships for MBA?
Post by: Apocalyptica602 on June 28, 2016, 08:21:02 AM
Hi all,

Going to be leaving my current job for a new opportunity soon, it's better in pretty much all aspects (except the commute, womp womp) and I'm confident it will be a net improvement on my happiness as well as financial life.

Only thing is: I'm currently pursing my MBA with my current company, who is paying for it (up to $10k a year). My new company does not have a tuition assistance program, but I successfully negotiated them to pay back my current company for the ~18k in unvested tuition I'd owe + a significantly higher salary to make up for the loss of the 10k/year reimbursement.

Now that I'm not formally getting my education 'covered' anymore, I'm starting to look into ways to 'stretch my dollar'. My undergraduate degree is in Mechanical Engineering and I finished in 2011, I've been doing this part time MBA program since 2014 and have been really enjoying it thus far, I'm almost 2/3rds through and want to finish it.

Has anyone had success applying for and getting 'adult' merit scholarships? I'm a 28 year old, white, cis-gendered, male who's family (just me and the wife) likely makes way too much money (>$200k) to qualify for any need or diversity based scholarship. (so I haven't bothered updating a FAFSA)

Any advice or other ideas? I realize I'm in a very fortunate situation to essentially cover my advanced degree out of pocket, but if there's optimization opportunity I'm all about it.

Thanks!
Title: Re: Pursuing Adult Scholarships for MBA?
Post by: mozar on June 28, 2016, 01:03:16 PM
What about from the school itself? Most schools have a list of scholarships you can apply for. Maybe there is one for outstanding grades or short men in engineering. You never know till you look! But it seems like most scholarships are awarded upon acceptance, not later on.
Title: Re: Pursuing Adult Scholarships for MBA?
Post by: CNM on June 28, 2016, 01:10:38 PM
I don't have any specific advice for you, other than I would go to your school's financial aid office apply to everything on their list.  My husband received a nice scholarship from a women's organization who were looking for non-traditional (i.e. old!) students who were returning to school.  Even though it was an women's organization, the scholarships were not gender-based and my husband was told that they were always hurting for enough applicants!  So, simply because you're a white cis-gendered male, I would not be discouraged.