Hi,
When building their class, B-schools look for diversity (geography, gender, education, profession etc.) in students, after all peer learning is an important component of B-school education. Now, they won’t take just anybody to meet their diversity criteria. They want the brightest. They want students who’ll become successful alumni, and enhance school’s brand equity in future.
How do you decide on the ‘brightness’quotient?
By considering an applicant’s GMAT score, GPA, undergrad institution, career progression, and brands/ industry where you’ve worked. (GMAT is not the sole criterion.) Success in the past is an indicator of things to come in the future. And if a school considers you as ‘bright’, it would want you to enroll in their program and not join a competing program, and scholarship is an important tool to achieve this objective.
Now, there is a diversity nuance to brightness quotient. If you are from a less-represented applicant pool, you’re more likely (than in a competitive applicant pool) to get scholarship. Remember, diversity factor in the first para.