California has a well-earned reputation for being among the most expensive states—high taxes, high housing costs, high utility rates, more expensive gas, costlier healthcare.
And it’s all true; the U.S. News 2024 ranking for cost of living and housing affordability puts California dead last in both categories. But it’s also true that more people choose to live here than any other state in the country. And more of these people hold advanced degrees than any other state in the nation.
California is expensive because we have a lot to offer. That’s true for the MBA programs here, too—we have some that are widely recognized as the best in the world. And they’re not cheap.
So chances are good that if you clear the bar for admission to one of these topflight business schools, you’re going to be hunting to find ways to cover those hefty tuition payments. And this list of resources is the best place to start.
Why Financial Aid Is Almost Certainly in Your Future When It Comes to Earning an MBA in California
Financing is a critical piece of the puzzle for any kind of business operation. It goes without saying that if you can’t figure it out for getting your MBA funded, you may not have much of a future as a titan of industry.
But every titan has to start somewhere. They get there by leveraging information and jumping on opportunities where they find them. So consider this your first lesson, one that comes even before you enroll in a California MBA program.
Those programs cost, on average, just over $40,000 in tuition and fees alone. But many of the top programs, the ones you are definitely trying to get into, are over six figures. That’s before you factor in those hefty California housing costs, ringing in at more than thirty percent over the national average.
It’s very common for the total debt burden of attendance at first-rate business schools to enter the area you want your starting salary offer to be– the low to mid six-figure range.
There Aren’t Many Gimmes for California Business Students Looking to Fund an MBA
Some small percentage of students have families or enough of a nest-egg built up that they will be able to write a check for college costs and not think twice about it. Other people assume that the hefty paychecks that come at you on the other side of an MBA make the up-front expense irrelevant. But that’s rarely the case. Even if you plan on having a stellar post-MBA career, those big student loan payments aren’t always easy to cover.
Not only are top business schools expensive in California, but the range of financial aid options available to cover their costs tend to be thinner than for other types of education.
MBA students also face a kind of bias in the financial aid world: grant and scholarship programs tend to be aimed at supporting students entering fields that are public service oriented and don’t have high earning expectations.
Funding for graduate degrees is inherently harder to come by than for undergrad studies. Even students who are eligible for grants may have exhausted lifetime limits on that funding through the course of earning their bachelor’s degrees. Many types of financial aid are aimed at getting the most students through that first all-important four-year program and may not even be open to graduate studies.
It’s also the case that almost all graduate-level students are considered independent, however, and aren’t required to provide parent and family financial information. That can be a plus if you are young and coming at an MBA directly after earning your bachelor’s degree. If you’ve already been out in the business world and doing well for yourself for a few years, that may work against you when looking for funding sources, however.
An Overview of the Types of Financial Aid Available to California MBA Students
Since you’ve already got a bachelor’s degree under your belt, you’re going to be familiar with the basics of college financial supports. You essentially have three types of aid to look at:
Grants
The most beneficial kinds of financial aid are also hardest to come by for MBA students: grants and scholarships that award you money for tuition and supplies that doesn’t have to be paid back. The catch with grant money is that it’s often very narrowly applied—it almost always has to go directly to tuition and fees and can’t be used to cover housing or other ancillary costs of attendance.
Loans
Loans are far and away the most common type of financial aid used by MBA students. Money up to a certain approved level is given out by a lender, often for any school-related costs.
Work-Study
The most beneficial kinds of financial aid are also hardest to come by for MBA students: grants and scholarships that award you money for tuition and supplies that doesn’t have to be paid back. The catch with grant money is that it’s often very narrowly applied—it almost always has to go directly to tuition and fees and can’t be used to cover housing or other ancillary costs of attendance.
You can think of evaluating and applying for these options as a preview of the sort of decisions that business executives must make every day:
- Weighing the cost/benefit tradeoff for different funding mechanisms
- Investigating the fine print of what is and isn’t covered under each program
- Calculating opportunity costs
It should be immediately clear to anyone, though, that money you don’t have to pay back or work for is better than either of the other alternatives.
California MBA Students Have Unique Challenges and Opportunities for Grants and Scholarships
This is a challenge that MBA students face all over the country, of course. But each state has its own unique funding landscape and quirks, and California is no different.
Like other states, particularly expensive coastal states, California puts quite a lot of money into supporting higher education. But unlike some other states, that funding doesn’t necessarily come directly to students.
Much of the graduate degree funding effort in California is funneled through the California State University and University of California systems. CSU by itself is the biggest public university system in the country. Together, with some 750,000 students, the two systems have a huge effect on higher education in the state.
Effectively, most MBA financial aid grants in California are university-based, with the specifics of any scholarship or grant based on where you enroll.
That means most of the details on what you can hope to receive through scholarship funds will depend on your school. And outside of the CSU and UC systems, you’ll largely have to rely on private funding.
Filing for Official Financial Aid Makes Sense Even if You Don’t Think You’re Eligible
All these programs are opened up through a basic FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) or CADAA (California Dream Act Application).
The Federal FAFSA form collects all kinds of data about your current financial status, and that of your family if you still have to list them. While it’s all primarily intended to establish your eligibility for various Federal financial aid programs, the reality is that most colleges rely on the same form to evaluate eligibility for school-specific financing.
In California, FAFSA is also used to establish eligibility for Cal Grant scholarships, the state-based financial aid program. But there’s another option for Dreamers (DACA—the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program) in California, the California Dream Act Application, or CADAA.
Most schools here will accept either. You can use CADAA to unlock both state and school financial aid toward your MBA if you:
- Are undocumented
- On temporary protected status
- Otherwise meet non-resident exception requirements
There aren’t any specific Cal Grant options for business students, and very few open to graduate students, but you may belong to another class that opens up your eligibility. This can include Native Americans, through the Native American Opportunity Plan, for example.
How To Find Scholarships and Fellowships Available to MBA Students in California
So let’s look at private scholarships and fellowships. Although MBA students don’t have the same deep bench of scholarship options as, say, nurses or social workers, there are dedicated business and even MBA-focused scholarships offered in California and nationally that you can apply for.
In fact, many scholarships are hyper-local… available only to students attending specific programs, or originating from particular cities or high schools. There are far too many of these to provide a comprehensive list for a state as large as California. But you can be sure that college financial aid offices in the state will be aware of them.
Fellowships often offer financial support, but also give you access to other valuable resources like mentors, internship placements, or conference sponsorships.
It’s also true that many scholarships have nothing at all to do with the fact that you’re a business student. You may qualify on the basis of factors like:
- Ethnic or national origin
- Where your parents worked
- What your grades were in high school
- How great an essay you can write on a particular subject
Of course, you are also competing with every student who has similar qualities or characteristics when you apply for those broad awards. While the universe of business students in California is still pretty big, you are at least narrowing your scope a little bit.
Some of the Best Scholarships Open to California MBA Students Today
We’re only looking at awards open to students in graduate level programs here, but even so, there are far more options than these. Instead, we’re aiming to give you some of the most lucrative awards aimed at business students and particularly MBA students.
ImpACT scholarships come from a merger of the ImpACT charity organization with QS, a global college research and admissions platform. Scholarships ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 are awarded to MBA applicants who attend QS recruitment events either online or in person.
The Association of Insurance Compliance Professionals obviously includes plenty of members who have gone through the rights of MBA studies to qualify for high level insurance jobs. They offer $2000 each to four MBA students with excellent academic records who plan to pursue employment in insurance.
Offered by the American Public Transportation Association, awards ranging from $5,000 to $12,000 are open to students who are heading for business administration and management positions in public transportation management.
It isn’t every day you meet an MBA candidate who plans to work in government, but these are important roles that ensure good governance and responsible administration of public funds. If you’re interested in such a role, it turns out it has some financial advantages after all: GFOA offers a range of scholarship opportunities, with awards anywhere from $5,000 to $25,000 for full or part-time students pursuing finance careers in state or local government.
This scholarship is a $2,000 award administered by Daughters of the American Revolution. It’s only open to full-time students but can be awarded for multiple years to the same recipient. You must hold a minimum 3.25 GPA to be considered, which is not always easy in top MBA programs.
Business Schools in California Can Be Exceptionally Generous When It Comes to MBA Tuition Support
In the MBA game, it’s often schools themselves that are the major source of scholarship funds. It’s not unusual for half or more of students at some top business schools to be receiving full-ride scholarships, putting the schools in the strange position of both charging an arm and a leg for tuition and then effectively picking up the tab themselves.
But this is what allows deserving students to even attend these premiere programs in the first place.
Many other institutions have grants that don’t necessarily offer fully-funded scholarship opportunities, but still provide the bulk of funding for many students on scholarship.
UC Davis Graduate School of Management offers a scholarship of almost $95,000 to eligible students based on academic strength, aptitude, and focus of study.
School-specific scholarship and fellowship program availability and amounts may vary from year-to-year. Check with school financial aid offices for the most current info.
Stanford GSB offers needs-based fellowships that can count for as much as $94,000 toward your MBA. There are also scholarship awards that may be school-specific but not MBA-specific, like Stanford’s Knight-Hennessy Scholars program for international students, which is open to MBAs as well as a range of other majors. UCLA’s Graduate Opportunity Program offers a diversity-based scholarship option that can be applied to business degrees.
Sometimes, schools combine various factors in evaluating scholarship grants. At CSU Chico, for example, you may qualify for
- MBA Academic Excellence scholarships that rest on your GPA
- Building Bridges Scholarships for students from underrepresented groups
- MBA North State Initiative Scholarships that qualify you for funds if you are a permanent resident in the Chico area
The school also offers a needs-based Graduate Business Grant to help cover state-mandated fees specific to business school programs.
It may be the case that the business school you are considering in California has separate financial aid options for online versus traditional programs. Make sure you are looking at options that support your format of choice.
The best news about these funding options is that they are easy to tap into. At many schools, all applicants are automatically considered for merit-based scholarships as part of the admissions process. In other cases, you’ll consult with counselors at the school’s financial aid office during enrollment. They’ll have the latest information about current opportunities and a good idea of the best funding options to fit your situation.
California MBA Students from Marginalized Backgrounds Can Find Additional Financial Resources
For most of American history, senior roles in business have largely been a white man’s game. It’s only in the past fifty years or so that executive jobs, and the sort of education that leads to those jobs, has been routinely available to women and minorities.
But in that can-do way that characterizes the entire history of California, there are many groups that are reaching out to help in the effort. Often, that comes through specific resources and funding made available to historically marginalized groups pursuing MBA studies.
Plenty of organizations have stepped up to the plate to help students from these groups overcome generational wealth gaps and get into MBA programs.
Ingenuity Can Pay Off When Looking for Financial Aid for MBA Programs
There are a grab bag of other funding opportunities that are open to MBA students coming from certain backgrounds and unique circumstances. For example, there are extensive coaching, funding, and assistance programs available for California veterans and active duty service members pursuing Master of Business Administration degrees… so many that we put together a whole separate guide just for them.
The spouses, children, and grandchildren of veterans may also have unique opportunities for additional supports, such as the AMVETS Scholarships. With more military retirees settled in California than in any other state, there’s a good chance that you may have a qualifying member somewhere in your family tree. The additional $4,000 to $12,000 you can pick up through AMVETS is yet another gift of their service to future generations.
It’s also not uncommon to find support close to home, or at least close to the office—many MBA students are actively building careers even as they go back to school for the degree. Businesses large and small understand the benefit that comes from having executives with MBAs. In many cases, they are willing to offer some sort of financial support as well as encouragement.
Major business consultancies like Deloitte and Accenture can have formal programs that act like in-house scholarships, such as Deloitte’s GSAP (Graduate School Assistance Program). Full tuition reimbursement, a technology stipend, GMAT class prep, assistance with applications, and in-house mentorship offer powerful backing to employees.
Smaller companies may not have a dedicated program for MBAs, but may have some sort of graduate school tuition reimbursement. Even small mom and pop businesses sometimes throw some money behind employees with potential. It never hurts to ask.
Federal Direct Loans Offer the Best Rates for Covering the Gaps in MBA Funding
The upshot of all this is that most MBA students in California, as elsewhere, wind up relying on student loans to fund their attendance.
MBA debt is tough to get a handle on. Many business schools don’t report such information, and it’s not broken down by state. A purpose-built calculator for MBAs run by Washington’s Foster School of Business shows that California’s top MBA programs routinely rank near the bottom when it comes to total outstanding debt load for grads, however.
California leads the nation in outstanding student loan debt according to a 2024 report in the Sacramento Bee. With some $146.7 billion on the books, 120,000 residents owe in excess of $200,000 each.
Hopefully, most MBA students come in with the good sense to keep their own tab somewhere below those nosebleed levels. According to the National Center of Education Statistics, the average debt for MBA students came to around $82,000 in 2020.
Both Public and Private Loans Are Available to California MBA Students
There is a dizzying array of student loan options on the market today. It’s capitalism in action, bringing joy to the heart of future MBAs… but a headache in the present, where they must figure out the best choices.
The best option for most U.S. citizens and permanent residents are Federal Direct Loans. These almost always have the best interest rates and most favorable origination fees, and they are relatively easy to qualify for since they aren’t needs-based. On the other hand, they sometimes come with annual limits which aren’t quite going to cut it when it comes to the most expensive California MBA programs.
Private loans are also available, but the terms and conditions vary considerably. Some requiring co-signers; others have exorbitant interest rates or repayment schedules.
While the typical MBA student has the kind of aptitude for number crunching to keep from getting caught in loan value traps, it’s still a good idea to double-check with financial aid offices first.
Getting your financial aid straightened out will surely count as one of the most stressful periods in your entire MBA prep process. On the other hand, getting through that challenge will be one of your first accomplishments on the road to financial success.