New Full-Time MBA Scholarship Initiative at NYU Stern

A new MBA scholarship initiative aimed at reducing gender inequality in business has been announced by NYU Stern. 

Up to US$1 million in merit-based funding awards has been earmarked by the Advancing Women in Business Scholarship for students who enrol in NYU Stern’s full-time MBA this fall (autumn). To qualify for the new MBA scholarship students must, “demonstrate a deep and abiding commitment to advancing women in business,” according to a press release for NYU Stern.

Each award made is to cover the first year of tuition and other mandatory fees associated with NYU Stern’s two-year, full-time MBA program. In the current academic year, these fees come to about US$70,000 out of a total estimated cost of attendance (including living expenses etc.) of approximately US$107,000.  

The proportion of female students in NYU Stern’s class of 2018, which entered last fall, is 35%. It seems likely therefore that the new MBA scholarship initiative will aim to boost this proportion closer to the 50/50 mark in the class of 2019. After all, a number of other leading business schools in the US reported class of 2018 female student proportions of over 40%, such as the Tuck School (44%) and the Kellogg School (41%).   

Women in business and eradicating implicit biases

Although it will have clear appeal to female applicants, there’s no specific mention that this MBA scholarship initiative is aimed solely at female MBA students. Might it be possible that a male student can also demonstrate a commitment to advancing the cause of women in business? NYU Stern’s popular student club, Stern Women in Business (SWIB), currently has four men on its leadership board, for example. Certainly, it has been noted that to truly remove any instances of gender inequality at business school, both men and women have to aware of any implicit biases they might possess and this necessitates including box sexes in the discussion.

NYU Stern was one of eight business schools in the US Northeast to be listed in the QS Global 250 Business Schools Report 2017’s highest, ‘Global Elite’ category on the strength of its full-time MBA program’s international reputation for employability and research excellence.