Bad experience with IE

I would like to comment on my experience with IE admission process so anyone is aware before applying to this business school.

I was quite surprised with the fact that being already in November I could apply for it's January 2022 intake but I wanted to start asap so I gave it a chance. It has an on-rolling process that enables you to apply even just a day before the program starts. Also it is extremely flexible regarding to the admissions requirements, for instance you don't need the GMAT as you can do a in house admission exam. Also you don't need the TOEFEL or the IELTS as you can do a $50 Duolingo exam that requires no prior preparation. During the admission process I was persuaded by the large amounts of different scholarships that the University offers. In fact, I applied to two of them. (scholarships ccover up to 50% of tuiton costs)

The admission process is very fast as I had teh decision in less than a week by saying that I would be a great asset to their program. Now is when the nightmare starts. Just immediately after they notify that you are admitted, they will ask you to pay for the place reservation of 8,000 Euros which is not covered by any loan or scholarship and it was never stated before. Also, the loans that they partner with banks are very low interest rates but they don't cover any living expenses and you need a co-signer. They are not willing to accept any other co-signer that is not living and working in Spain (quite a burden to ask for somebody to be you co-signer for a 70,000 euro loan...) That is, if you don't have any extremely trusted person in Spain you won't get any loan from any bank. That said, even if you manage to get a scholarship and the loan you will need almost EUR 30,000 cash to cover the place reservation (EUR 9,000) and living expenses for 1 year (EUR 20,000). This is quite hard to obtain specially for students like me that live in Argentina where we have a very devaluated currency and our income is very low in terms of USD o EUR.

Although I managed to get the money I was denied from both scholarship saying that although I have an excellent profile there are people that need the aid more than I do... This sounded weird as many people from my country had some scholarship without even apply to any loan as they had the money from their family. One who is asking for a loan is less in need for financial aid than he who has the money upfront to pay the rest of the program?

Basically, I was lured by their on rolling system and flexible admission process but, once in and having paid the submission fee, I found a lot of obstacles to get financial aid even though I stated it clearly in the admission process that I would need it. They even asked me to pay the upfront free without even having a decision whether I would get the scholarship or the loan!

IE is a for profit institution and as such they have an extremely commercial orientation. Just take a look at the amount of programs and degrees that they offer. After talking to many students in there they told me that everyone who applies gets in no matter what because they are revenue-driven, and they are extremely scarce regarding financial aid because they, as any company, focus highly on profit margins.

I would not recommend anyone to join this MBA Program unless they are willing to spend a big amount of money from their own pocket in a University which is very commercialy orientated.