Financial Aid At B-School Increases for Minorities

The Business School will triple the funds of its Disadvantaged Minorities Fellowship Program for MBA candidates entering in September, 1969.

Out of a total Financial Aid budget that is expected to exceed $1.6 million, the Business School has allocated $300,000 to this program. This year, awards for students averaged $3500 in outright fellowships and $500 in loans. Twenty-six blacks and one Mexican-American participated in the program.

Prior policy limited financial aid for the two-year MBA program to $7500 and total indebtedness to $10,000. This year, the Financial Aid Office has liberalized the ceilings on loans and indebtedness. The new limits are $10,000 in Business School aid and $12,500 in total indebtedness.

Warren K. Cooper '56, director of Financial Aid, said yesterday that before the MBA Fellowship Program Began, black students from low income families looking at the $10,000 cost of the two-year MBA program, were "immediately reluctant" to make the necessary financial commitment.

Cooper explained that disadvantaged black students, like everyone else, are concerned about flunking out. At the end of one year they could find themselves out of the Business School with a $5000 debt.

For second-year MBA candidates, the Financial Aid Office will increase loans but decrease fellowships.

The Financial Aid Office brochure states that after disadvantaged minority group students have successfully completed their first year, their academic success will provide them with a "more realistic assessment of their future earning power."

Cooper said that he hopes that these students will "gain confidence" and realize that their future earning ability will easily allow them to pay off their loans. The median starting salary for '68 MBA graduates was $12,500.

Cooper added that "financial aid today is following a consistently increasing trend that has no end in sight."