The Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), which owns the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT), has created a new program designed to target prospective business school applicants for whom the GMAT registration fee presents a barrier to applying to business school.
The new fee waiver program, part of GMAC’s ongoing efforts to ensure universal access to graduate management education, lets business schools apply for up to 10 fee waivers per year that they can then offer to prospective students who can’t afford the $250 exam fee on their own.
GMAC encourages schools to offer fee waivers as part of need-based scholarship and financial aid programs, although schools may also use them to recruit students from financially disadvantaged regions or from other countries, GMAC says. For example, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) uses the fee waivers to help recruit students from what are called “less developed” sections of China, GMAC reports. GMAC will consider such recruitment initiatives when schools apply for more than 10 fee waivers per year.
GMAC does not grant fee waivers directly to prospective applicants, but only through business schools. The business schools that receive waivers, for their part, must provide monthly accounting to help GMAC monitor outreach efforts.
For more information on this new program, click here. Business school administrators who would like to learn more about the program can also email feewaivers@gmac.com.
I think this is great idea. Applying to b school is a huge financial commitment and there are so many qualified applicants who may not have the financial resources to pursue the degree. I am thinking of people in non-profit.
I hope this program allows the MBA to be more accessible and global.
Thank you for posting this! Much appreciated.