Scholarship Opportunities

Well, I'm starting to get back into the swing of things and now that internship/summer discussions are complete, I've noticed that the conversation tends to turn towards scholarship recipients.

Tepper doesn't provide a list of scholarships, so a lot of what I'm about to say are pieced together through hearsay and grapevine.

There are three levels in which a scholarship is granted. The first level is during the application process. Typically, this is where the Consortium comes in. The Consortium is where many minority applicants (i.e. hispanic, native american, and/or black) apply to Tepper through. It grants a full, merit-based scholarship.

The second level is part of the regular application stage - i.e. someone applies directly to Tepper. No extra work is required to be considered for a scholarship. This is where the Forte Foundation's Fellowships get granted. The Forte Foundation looks to promote women MBA representation. I have a Forte Fellowship, which had me all excited until I realised that nearly every woman in my class has a Forte Fellowship. Fear not, men, for I have noticed that nearly every man receives a merit scholarship for roughly the same amount. It takes a little glow off the prestige, but every little bit counts.
There are also other scholarships that are granted at this stage, like the Alumni Association scholarship and a couple of others I'm not familiar with. I stumbled across this site which also lists some fellowships that are available, but typically to people who come from a certain country (Australia unfortunately not on the list :(  ). There are also a handful of students who receive Dean's scholarships, which is also full-ride on tuition but given only to "exceptional students."

The third level happens when the student is at school. It's rare to have one during the first year; I think there was one but the name of it eludes me. It's the movement into second year in which the rest of the monies are granted.
Now, I received notification that I received the Judi Nusbaum and Lynne Skinner Graduate Scholarship this year, which partially funded my Forte Fellowship. If anyone follows me on Twitter, I had excitedly announced this fact. The partner to one of my classmates mentioned that my classmate also received a scholarship partially funding his merit scholarship. I felt like the "everyone gets a scholarship" baton was being passed around again, like I discovered for first year. I felt honored to have a scholarship, don't get me wrong, but I didn't feel special.

Conversations with my classmates, however, indicated that it wasn't the case. So that's kinda cool.
The prestigious Ford scholarship was also communicated to the recipient probably around the same time. The recipient is the person with the highest GPA of the class from the first year, and he/she gets a full ride for the second year. I don't know if there are any other benefits, but I know about the full ride.

At one point last week, a couple of people and I were talking about Level 3 part b: the specialty awards. The Ford Scholarship recipient is honored at the Dean's Reception, which happens pretty early in the school year. This year it's a tad late. There are also a number of awards that are given to second year students for their performance in specific subjects in the first year: accounting, finance, operations, organizational behavior, marketing, strategy. Maybe a couple of others. There's also one for exemplifying school spirit. No-one is entirely sure a) what the criteria for winning the award is. Maybe it's highest GPA. Maybe it's dedication to the subject; b) what the recipient gets. One person I talked to swore that the recipient received some sort of cash award; or c) if the awards have already been communicated to the recipients. I haven't heard anything through the grapevine yet.

We've still got a few weeks to go for that.