MBA courses are expensive and place a massive financial burden on the students. It is also possible that student loans, scholarships and sponsorships are hard to come by in some cases. But is it possible to negotiate the fee with Business schools to get substantial concessions?
The trick is to move in early. Candidates should not wait till the fee payment deadlines after having secured admission in an institute of their choice. If you delay till the final hour, the window of opportunity closes as with seats filling up with those willing to pay the full amount, the admission authorities would be under no compulsion to consider your case for a discount.
What would be the nature of discounts or waiver of a portion of the fees? It may assume the form of scholarships available for certain categories or concessions for others. It would be worthwhile to take a close look at individual Schools’ prospectus to find out exactly how much they charge under various heads like tuition fee, other charges like course material and the like.
Fee concessions could be in the form of full or partial fee waiver, scholarship or even discounts following opting out of offers like opting out of international tours, to name a few.
Be warned that highly ranked institutions may not have provision for direct fee discounts but could offer options by way of generous scholarships provided you meet the criteria by way of academic performance or career background. Some may even have opportunities for students to earn while enrolled for the course.
Among some of the factors that could earn you a full or partial fee waiver are factors like high scores in entrance tests like GMAT, CAT or XAT. Most of the Institutes in India also offer concessions for candidates from socially or economically weaker sections. Fee waiver could be in the range of 10% to 50% and in exceptional cases, even up to 80%. Thus even for a 10% waiver when the fee is pegged in the range of Rs.7-15 lakh, the student will get a substantial relief of about Rs 70,000 to Rs 150,000.
Most of the private business schools set the fees themselves and peg it at a higher level. Thus, there is scope for students to demand discounts, especially when it is shown as a number of charges, expenses or remuneration. The Institute could be persuaded to waive some charges and grant exemptions in others.
Scholarships could be of several types. Some are offered by the Schools themselves, the alumni, promoter or some eminent person. Here again it would be worthwhile to find out the criteria and other requirements that could include extra curricular activities like excellence in sports. Put in your application early because the number of such scholarships would be limited.
Some of the institutes club the expenses for visits to Schools abroad or have international exchange programmes with the fees that could run to several lakhs. Here again, it would be worthwhile to find out if opting out of the tour could result in a substantial reduction of fees.
While intense competition could keep fee structure flexible and open for negotiations in private business schools, such a scenario is not possible at government regulated institutes like the IIMs.
