FREE TUITION MBA's for minority applicants?

I mentioned the Consortium in a previous post (see here), and I promised I would explain what it is. Well, according to the website (here) “The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management is the country’s preeminent organization for promoting diversity and inclusion in American business.” Obviously that doesn’t really say anything, so let me explain what the Consortium is and how it works.

Basically, the Consortium is a collection of 13 schools that are committed to diversity. Their commitment is shown through membership in the Consortium and FULL TUITION FELLOWSHIPS.

I’ll give you a minute to take that in, lol.

As a member of the Consortium, you have access to the “Orientation Program” in June. During this program, the new Consortium members meet each other for the first time AND meet several of the Consortium corporate sponsors in a series of programs and workshops. A few Consortium fellows I met at Indiana University had internship offers before the semester even began. That would take a ton of pressure off the first year.

According to the Consortium fellows I have spoken to, there are also several “Consortium exclusive” events during the year geared toward professional development, recruiting, and some just for fun.

Obviously, the full-tuition fellowship is the main draw of the Consortium to many applicants (*raises hand*). The application process is somewhat convoluted, so I’ll try to explain it clearly.

Prospective students can apply to up to six of the 13 Consortium schools. After ranking your school in order of preference, there is a common application to fill out with basic information (personal info, work background, extracurriculars…), and a few generic essays that every school you pick will receive. These questions are mainly the ‘Why an MBA? Why now?” questions that every school asks.

In addition, applicants have to answer 1-3 school specific essays for each school s/he picks. Don’t worry; school specific essays only go to that individual school. So when you have to answer “Why is Dartmouth the school for you?” AND “Why do you want to go to USC?” No one will know if you copy and paste the same answer, haha.

After your application is complete, it goes to each ranked school for review. Pay attention to the way your rank your chosen schools because they represent the order in which ranked schools can offer an applicant a fellowship. You can only receive one fellowship offer. So if your #1 school offers you a fellowship and you don’t want to go, you are out of luck. Of course that’s relative, you do have a full tuition fellowship for your MBA.

All the schools you apply to can still accept you and offer their own financial aid package. A Consortium fellowship offer is just that, an offer, so you can turn it down if you get a comparable offer from another school.

That’s the Consortium process in a nutshell. If you have any questions or clarification, please post it in the comments section. Thanks for reading!

-The RBG