bb wrote:
Hi
Yzreel. These are pretty interesting opportunities with company and country scholarships.
Does it matter which country you go to school at or which schools you go to?
I feel the company scholarship is too tricky and too many strings. I wonder if you can negotiate a better termination clause. Many MBB's offer to sponsor but the termination clauses are much better and usually only 3 year commitment but I understand different countries have different rules, still may be something to consider to ask instead of turning it down. While the living expenses and tuition paid are awesome, 7-year commitment and inability to break the contract (since you would be having to pay back double in your local salary environment). The company would basically low-ball you, do what they want, and you would lose a lot of leverage, unless you have had anyone from your company do this and be happy about it.... it is nothing to ignore since you may be getting $200K in assistance and over 7 years, that's $30K per year without interest. So definitely an interesting but very challenging option. Perhaps last resort if nothing else works. After 7 years, you would not really care if you had gone to HBS or Cox since your hiring opportunities will mostly depend on your last 7 years of performance and it is possible your company will just keep you in a certain position without promotion and that will look terrible on the resume to try to jump ship. Obviously you can still work your butt off but that's hard to do to be motivated over a long time. (I am making some worst case assumptions and making a villain out of your company here and hope in reality they are much nicer since they are offering this opportunity).
Country scholarship - that's interesting. I think you can definitely use it. I don't think paying it off after graduating is a problem as long as it does not have some unethical or sensitive stipulations that would force you to lie be dishonest. Why do you think it would be a dick move? Because you never intended to come back right away? You never know what happens - you may graduate in a very tough environment in the US. Also, how would you pay it off? Is it a lump sum or?
I think you have to ideally explore multiple options. You can get
Prodigy and other loans but they don't always cover all the expenses. I can tell you that most international students rely on loans. Whatever savings you have (and I had - I made even less than you did
) are indeed meager compared to the needs and burn rate.
When it comes to investment into the MBA, I would look at how confident are you about yourself and how much help from the school's brand do you want. Schools provide you with opportunities. Can you convert them? E.g. HBS and Stanford will get you an interview with almost any company but can you actually close it. If not, you may be better off going to a full scholarship lower ranked program where you will have to recruit via referral or through a network that won't judge you by just first impression interview with high expectations for a Stanford/HBS grad.
P.S. Currently the salaries are quite high and it is possible to borrow $200K and pay it off in under 5 years if you are in the top 50% of your class in terms of compensation. If you are in the top 20%, you can pay off loans in 3 years in the US.
PPS. Do you have an admit already? How do you qualify for these scholarships?
Hi BB! Thank you so much for replying!
Yes, I do consider it's a really good opportunity, but unfortunately I am pessimistic that the termination clause is negotiable because it is part of a routine and company-wide offer (though not a lot of people are offered / accepted, it is a formal company initiative i/o an individual and special offer). Nonetheless, I agree with you that it is an offer that sounds nice, but returning to a low salary job in third-world country after, say, getting accepted in H/S/W sure sounds like a major loss. I think most people who took the offer ends up regretting it, especially those who went to tier 1 schools.
About the country scholarship, yeah, because the scholarship is supposed to be given to people with interest of going back to the country and building it toward the better. To sign the scholarship, with full intent on breaking it and repaying it would be entering an agreement in bad faith. Initially, I thought it shouldn't matter as if I repay the entire scholarship award (maybe with some penalty), I would be free of any obligation -moral and financial-, but a close friend said that "it's the equivalent of stealing an opportunity from another, less fortunate person that wants to do good for the country".
I'm not saying I don't want to go back at all, maybe I will some time in the future, but to go back directly after MBA sounds like a waste of once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I honestly think the best option is to break the terms of the contract, and then sign a sizable signing bonus, pay off the sum in its entirety (or maybe half the sum and the other half in short installments. But like you said, I don't know what the future holds, having the option to just go back and spend the 5 years in top tier firm in my country -and then request to be moved abroad- sounds like a nice back up plan.
Thank you so much for all the info! I think it might be a possibility that I can get a big enough financial aid / scholarship and then take another source of financing elsewhere, though honestly this option is a bit nerve-wracking especially with the recession / war threat possibly hurting my future job prospect.
Generally, both options of the scholarships would only need me to provide LoA to one of the T25 global MBA programmes. Regarding the admit, honestly I might just be a bit ahead of myself. I'm planning to apply on the second round (Jan), and it's not like I'm going to be admitted by any of my target schools. I just want to clear myself on the funding possibilities, because otherwise I might be forced to renege on an admit by my dream school (and it'd ruin my chances in the future, should I find another avenue for funding).
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25 Oct 2022, 20:42
