In these hard economic times universities have a choice, to play it safe and reduce scholarship and fellowship funding or to take a risk and invest in top talent. Some universities chose the latter and as a result are snatching up the best candidates.

The trend of offering high-paying scholarship and fellowship offerings to attract top talent is most evident in U.S. business schools, where the trend is being described by some as a fellowships “arms race”.

“It is an arms race,” says Alison Davis-Blake, dean of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. “The race has gotten so hot, so fast that schools are using operating money to pay for a lot of these scholarships. No one had ever, ever done that in MBA land. Almost everybody is doing it now.” Read more

Some MBA programs, such as Yale, have increased their average scholarship and fellowship payouts by 100-150%. Other schools are adopting an even more aggressive and compelling approach, “premier fellowships”, which in addition to offering full-tuition funding, also provide a living stipend. Some schools are reaching one-step further and are offering additional awards to fellowship recipients. A great example of this is UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, which offers a full-tuition premier fellowship that includes a $5,000 living stipend. UNC further sweetens the pot with it’s “Falls Prize”, which provides a $25,000 total stipend paid in $12,500 increments per year.

By all accounts, it appears that the fellowship opportunities in U.S. business schools will continue to increase for the foreseeable future. Learn more about these exciting fellowship opportunities here.