Fall Recruiting Moves into Summer

With an eye on the softening job market, some B-schools are staging career events earlier in the calendar.

Business school students used to marvel that internship recruiting—a rite of passage for first-years—began as soon as school started in the fall. But the hiring is slowly starting to creep into the summer months. And with the softening of the job market, career services officers are urging students, especially first-years, to start thinking about their internship and job hunts earlier than ever before. To help them, business schools are ramping up their offerings. Career services officers are planning summer career panels, opening up alumni databases to first-years and incorporating career activities into orientation programs.

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jun2008/bs2008068_414314.htm

Financing MBA

One thing I want to emphasize here is that, never back off from pursuing an MBA due to financial fears. Generally, it falls in place.

Well, there are three main sources of funding your MBA.

1. Merit scholarships: This is offered by the schools themselves after evaluating your merit based on various aspects. The amount in a merit scholarship can be anywhere between a few thousands to full fee waiver. Almost all schools have merit scholarship deadlines before which you would be considered eligible for the same. There are lot of funds out there. Be sure you don't miss this chance.

2. Assistantships: Assistantships help you meet your living expenses, typically partly and sometimes fully. When offered an assistantship, you are expected to assist a professor in his/her teaching or research work or assist an admin person in his/her work. You need to spend a certain number of hours per week and make your earning. Assistantships and merit scholarships are mostly independent of each other and one may be lucky to earn both.

3.Student Loans: The third and the most sought out option for MBA financing is student loans. Broadly speaking, when you apply for a loan in your country of study; a foreign country, the banker needs you to have a co-signer. Some colleges would co-sign for you. But in the other case, you need to arrange it yourself. Each banker, of course, would have his one policies. However, a student is allowed to borrow for fee and living expenses too and pay back after he/she graduates. There exists a grace period too as repaying few months after graduation.

So, don't panic! Move ahead!