How far in advance should students start financially preparing for their MBA education?
As soon as they begin believing that a graduate education is going to a valued part of their life plan, they ought to begin saving at that point. I’ve heard some people say prospective students should start preparing right after their graduation from college. That sounds a touch unrealistic, though, since people tend not to have their lives quite so mapped out. As I say, as soon as they realize that an MBA is definitely going to be a part of their life, that’s where I believe putting aside savings is going to be important. I would say some significant savings and some decisions about eliminating debt from their portfolio needs to be managed no fewer than two years before attending B-school. Debt that comes from previous undergraduate education or perhaps other graduate education can be deferred, but a lot of our societal debt these days cannot be deferred for educational reasons, and those kinds of debts are not ever considered as part of our financial-aid decision-making process. For
