Molson (Concordia U) 2013 - Calling All MBA Applicants

Why the H Concordia doesn't announce scholarships/award/ financial aid?
I've asked like 1000 times.

I have never seen any other school act like this. it's like they're the mafia and you're a judge.

Come on. It's a simple answer. "We will announce it in ..... "or simply say "we don't have any this year". What's with the vague answers? Do they like to keeping people waiting?
I'm really pissed.

Any news on this front?

News, no. I think they have tiny tiny budget and waiting to fill the class then put all students together and ompare them then maybe!!!! give them some change as scholarship.
I think I'm gonna (have to) stay another year and apply again. 6admissions and not a choice for matriculation, now that's hell!

You're worried about paying for tuition and were hoping to get a scholarship somewhere? Why not finance it?

Yes, I was hoping for scholarships to atleast cover some of the tuitions.

finance it how?
I make less than 4000$ a year and that's income before tax and daily expenses. even if I could save all 4000: let's see. 65000$ for 2years in concordia which mean I have to save 16years to pay for concordia.

If you mean loan:
I'm from Iran. Do you know what's Irans inflation rate?
If a bank was to give me a loan the least interest rate was about 24% and thats if I hade huge collaterals (like house, huge bank account),...

Also, do you know how much I would have to get?
I give 36000Rials for 1$ (this is the exchange rate now) So for 65000$ I have to get 2340Million Rials to pay for Concordia.

Now, how do you think I'm supposed to finance the MBA?

interesting. never heard of such a school. what country is it in?

Mehrabounr,

I wasn`t looking for smart alec remarks or attitude. I was asking you hoping that I might be able to provide some helpful advice. Now that you`ve succeeded in rubbing me the wrong way, I would ask: why in the world did you apply to the schools you did in the first place? In the absolute best case scenario, you might (if you were lucky) receive a 25% bursary. Whether you`re paying $65k or $50k, really, what`s the difference?

Another thing, I would refrain from calling out the majority of the schools you apply to for being incompetent for a variety of reasons on public forums. You`re not doing yourself any favours.

Carl

Sorry, I'm mad at the situation and I forgot that your trying to help out.

I do have some savings( and my family) but put together they don't cover any of these schools. I took a risk. I really counted on some partial scholarships or at least TA (part time job). I did get a 40% or 32000 from one scholl but still the remaining amount is above 80K.

The schools I applied! well you know I considered a lot of things.
I checked each schools rankings. Some ranking had this "average scholarship" report. I checked those and for example they said school says 90% of students get some kind of funding from school and the average amount is 10K so I figured have 10K chance and with a TA in second year I can manage.
or I looked at each schools budget. a school had 2M for scholarships for that class and they had less than 100students so 2M/100 is 20K for each so I have a chance there.
There was a lot of calculations involved
And that's just the things I checked for scholarships. I checked part time jobs, TA/RA/GA/...... I checked internship records .....
I did the due deligence the only thing I didn't count was schools not giving the tru data. I didn't know that there are ways that they can change their stats like if they say 90% found jobs after graduation don't count that

Another reason for chosing them was fate! 2of them invited me and waived the application fee, so I applied just to have a back up.
The others, well by the time I took my gmat and started finding schools (which I put too much time because of lack of experience and information about admissions) and by the time I was ready, it was february and most US schools would not accept internatianl applications. Afterward, I checked schools based on their deadline and other things.
These 4 I ended up were the ones who had a deadline and had a program that I liked and wanted to study. Which all turned out to be MBAs.

I could have applied to lower ranking schools for MS in management, could have got a full funding from state universities in US fro MBA but I had Canada in mind and really liked a good school and reaaly wanted MBA so I didn't apply for any of them.
Just 6 schools in total.
I knew I may not get in any of them. I really belive I'd be happier if they had rejected me. That way I knew I wasn't in the same level of other students but it's a pain to see you had what they wanted but you can't.

In Iran there isn't much information about applying to business schools. There are no consulting agancies here. Most people go for engineering. If anyone goes for business they apply for PHD which has a different process. there are very few who apply for masters and way fewer who go for MBA. Finding everything from zero and starting from scratch takes time. It's the third year I put for applying. 1.5year just searched around to see whats what, why I should go for MBA, where should I go, ..... a few months for TOEFL, few for GMAt the first time which I realized I had gone the wrong way. The second time did better but still.
It's taken all my energy and I really want to see some results ths year but it doesn't seem like it. As I gather, I have to apply next year and apply to just low schools in small towns.
I just don't have any more energy for next year and the way things are going in Iran staying here is not an option.
The frustration comes from all of these so I applogize if I bit your head.

About the incompetency! Not all of them but some are.
Let me give you an example that mad me furious.
Rotman gave my admission email few days back. It had no information about the conditions,deadlines,..... just congratulations!
I emailed them 3times to see what's what, when I have to answer and ...... No response yet
I asked a friend in Toronto, he went to school. they've told him that my email had all the information and it was him that wasn't informed (meaning I gave him wrong info) Also they had told him that I have to give them the 5000$deposit till end of this month or lose my place in the program.
Now, they have sent me my admission package yesterday by mail not express mail. it will take about a month till i get the package. 9I even emailed them about it. because I knew they don't deliver packages to Iran so I mentioned that they should send it via DHL and I will accept the charge. If only they had read it!) The package has the information about the deposit and the deadline. I'm gonna receive the package after the deadline and just get the info about the deadline and deposit and etc.
Don't you think that a school, a business school, is supposed to have a better management, a better process, a better handle on things?
If I wasn't this serious and sending them emails one after another or sending my friend there, who do you think would have taken a hit? Would they accept it was their fault? Would they accept it was their lack of plannning that caused a problem? No. I would be the one who had done the wrong and would have lost the opportunity.
(P.S. though I critisice Rotman, I do have respect for their admission team and I do like their school)

I know all of them are busy and I'm not the only one emailing them or asking questions. I do wait few days to see if I get an answer. I do check the schools, every forum I know that students talk about the school.
But how about the schools? Just because they're done with the application does that give them the right to forget about the students?

I have a school who everyday gave me an update. i told them i can't matriculate they arranged for me to contact them later. They even told me not to fill out some forms to help me out. It's not an unknown school it actually is famous and they are evry selective (only 10% acceptence rate) Wouldn't you expect the same thing from other schools?
We did our part, we applied on time, send them the info, waited for them to process, interviewed,.... now that they're done "okay, go on by yourself"?

So : Yes, some schools are incompetent. some really lack the support, some are just too busy to care. but there are still schools who do care about students.

mehrabounr,

I`m sorry to hear that the process is proving to be such a pain for you. Perhaps you would have better luck if you called than if you wrote by email. I`m assuming long distance charges from Iran are costly, but maybe that`s another approach worth exploring. If you do decide to try again next year, try to apply before December, it will give you more time to communicate important info with the schools you're applying to. Keep your chin up.

If I were you, and I were in your financial situation, I would retake the GMAT. Your GMAT score alone is one of the biggest predictors of the size of bursary you`re awarded. If you can manage to score above 700, you`ll greatly increase your odds at getting a good scholarship. I know that English isn`t your mother tongue and that definitely makes it harder, but it may be time well spent. Especially if the bursary equates to several years worth of salary for you.

I am thinking about taking the GMAT for the third time. first I got 550 then 660 now a +110 would be great!
I'm not sure how much better I can get but I think writing all the essays and taking interviews and such have helped me in thinking/speaking/understanding English better so I might get a better score. I did good in quant 48 (can't go higher because I know I will always miss a few questions because of tiny mistakes in calculation0. I know I can get a better verbal score but not that high. maybe my current 31 would become 41.
How much do you think would effect my score?

Taking GMAT is not an easy option for any Iranian. We don't have any GMAT test centers in Iran so we have to take it in another country. The closest centers are in Turkey and Dubai.
Now since all international travels cost much, anyone who goes from Iran just to take GMAT takes a 3day journey at best. 1 day just to go there, next morning take the exam and come back home the next day. Just the journey from home to airport, waiting for hours for checking your documents and visa, flight, .... takes its toll and we all get lower scores because we are just tired. We have to spend 250for the exam but there is a 900-1400$ charge attached to it so GMAT costs 1200 for me.
Aside from the financial cost and the tiring journey,.... we have all sorts of problems!

Like: Dubai has some problems with Iran. They don't like it when a single girl goes there! Last time I went with my family, they let my sister and mom pass but hold me just because I had booked a single room in my name! I was in the passport checking desk for more than 1 hour! the officer was talking in arabic. I asked him if something was wrong. He got mad. he told me "you woman, I man, don't speak". (In some Islamic countries they really do believe that men are the superiors of women) after telling me to shut up(which shook me down to my bone), he was shouting at me and if it wasn't for some of the other officers i think he would have either sent me to jail or deported me. Now this was just 15hours before my exam.

Everytime I want to take the GMAT, I first have to book the exam like everyone else, then go find a tour service, book a room and flight, spend a lot of money to get a visa, if they accept it! then get my visa and go for the exam.

( Just to add to the funny! story: I had booked meetings in one of the MBA fairs in dubai for that day when I got to the hotel I didn't had time to change and I hadn't slept last night so you can imagine how tired I might had looked. i took a backpack and went straight for the fair it was in one of the 5* hotels. when I got to the hotel I asked one of the employees (mid manager) where the meeting was, he told me to follow him, he took me through weird hallways, I thought okay maybe the conference room is in the back or its faster. He took me to the parking lot and asked me to leave (because he thought i was a street girl!!!) I was wearing jeans and a shirt and a backpack(nothing revealing or bad). I was so mad and tired after what the airport officer did that I burst into tears. Then I got angry and that's when the noise making started. I asked for the manager, .... anyway at the end he didn't even apologize. he told me I had imagined that he has taken me to the backdoor and had said those things to me. I missed my appointments in the fair, got inside after 6pm and most were going home. )

Now you can laugh or cry. But I think you can understand why all my admissions are important for me and why I'm anxious to hear from a school. I do not want to hear some idiot employee to tell me you're a who... or an officer tell me to shut up because he has a p.... . This is my life now (almost same things in Iran) and I hate it and I want to go somewhere that they will respect me for who I am even if I'm washing toilets. No one should dare talk to a human being in such manner.
Now you can see why I'm not really looking forward to taking GMAT again (specially in Dubai)

(see how your life looks easier when you hear such things?!)

:O :O :O !!! My God !! I can't believe your story !! U are a brave and energetic girl, I must say. After going through all these problems, you are still giving your best shot everywhere. Respect !!

I am also from a muslim developing nation (Bangladesh). But girls here do not need to go through all the hassles u talked about. And Now I really feel lucky that we have a test center in our country and all these years i had been complaining why is there only 1 test center in our country :@ !!

Anyways, all the best for your journey. Hope u will get a good school. I also plan to apply to Concordia next fall. Update here if you have any updated news. )