US$270,000 in MBA Scholarships up for Grabs at Rotman: MBA News

Prospective and incoming full-time MBA students of The University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, have the chance to win over C$300,000 (US$271,500) in MBA scholarships by taking part in the second annual Rotman Problem Solving Challenge.

The challenge was created as an opportunity for incoming students to gain experience in problem solving as well as to get to know the Rotman School of Management campus, fellow students and faculty. Designed to give those from all academic and professional backgrounds a fair chance, the challenge provides competitors with all the resources required to participate, including; pre-reading materials, an introductory briefing, guided problem exploration in groups, one-on-one coaching from student mentors, constructive feedback and faculty debriefing. All finalists will also receive coaching from Rotman faculty.

There are three rounds students must circumnavigate in order to win any of the MBA scholarships. The first round is the individual written submission of a 1,000 word answer to its essay question, which will be released Monday, April 4th. The second round is open to the top 100 essay submissions and involves a 15-minute individual presentation to be delivered to judges via Skype, followed by a five minute question and answer session. The third and final round will take place on site at Rotman School of Management’s Toronto campus May 13-14. This round will see individuals forming ‘executive teams’ where each student will present their findings to the group and go on to do a 20-minute group presentation to senior stakeholders, followed by a 10-minute question and answer session. Four groups will then go on to the finals where they will repeat their presentation to senior representatives at the school as well as industry experts. The winners will be announced shortly thereafter.

MBA scholarships awarded separately to individuals and groups

The C$300,000 (US$271,500) of MBA scholarships will be divided among all winners with separate prizes going to individuals and groups. Incremental prizes for individuals start at C$20,000 (US$18,100) for fifth place, all the way up to a full tuition scholarship worth C$90,000 (US$81,400) for the overall individual winner.

There are also additional scholarships for the individual who shows the best presentation (C$10,000 / US$9,050) as well as for the student who hands in the best essay submission (C$5,000 / US$4,500). The groups are judged separately with first place receiving C$5,000 (US$4,500) per team member and lesser prizes for second, third and fourth places.

In order to be eligible to win the MBA scholarhsips, applicants must be accepted onto the 2016 full-time MBA program at Rotman School of Management. Rotman recently became the top Canadian business school among international employers, according to the QS TopMBA Global 200 Business Schools Report 2014/2015, entering the top ten for the whole of North America in the process.