Career Development Funding

Lost_Prophet

Hi,

I have been accepted to an MBA program from July but could do with some advice on the finances

I think I can self-fund but will possibly a bit unsteady for the first few months. I have applied for work funding and support from the Career Development Loan Scheme. So my question:

1. How likely is it that the Career Development Loan will be rejected?
2. Has anyone done an MBA at Manchester University and had an agreement to stagger payments (eg. £600 a month over the 3 years?)?
3. Anyone know of any other avenues of funding?

Cheers,
LP

Lost_Prophet

Oh BTW...

One thing to add is the following:

Will I have a problem getting a CDL if I have an outstanding credit card balance? I have £1600 outstanding balance (0% interest runs out in May) which I can pay off tomorrow, but there is a £2000 course fee deposit required in April so I'm reluctant to pay it off until the 0% expires

Tixy

CDL is subject to status like other credit, so you could be refused if you have issues on your credit file.

I wouldn't think a credit card balance would be a major issue but I don't know for certain.

Lost_Prophet

Has anyone got any answers the other question?

1. How likely is it that the Career Development Loan will be rejected?
2. Has anyone done an MBA at Manchester University and had an agreement to stagger payments (eg. £600 a month over the 3 years?)?
3. Anyone know of any other avenues of funding?

silo24

I'm doing an MBA at Aston University at the moment so I can only tell you what the situation has been for me.

Answers to your 3 questions below are based on my experience:

1: All down to your credit history. Do you have any late payments? What is your current debt/earnings ratio for things like personal loans, mortgage, car finance etc? All this is taken into account, as well as payment history, and Credit Card debt alone will not preclude you being accepted

2: Aston Business School require payment on a per module basis. If you are doing two modules a term, you will pay for both modules within the first 3 weeks of that term. Bear in mind as well that if the course is over 2 years, the Career Development loan will only pay out in 4 instalments of £2500 at various points. Your School needs to know when these are as you will invariably go behind on the payments they make versus the accrual of the fees due, so you need to be able to top up the difference. My fees were £15,275 and P&CDL will contribute £10,000 over the two year period, with me funding the £5,275 balance. Basically you are fine for term 1, but in term 2 there will be a shortfall you need to meet, although if you save £600pm from day one you will be fine.

3: I used 0% cards to fund the balance after I was accepted for a P&CDL from Barclays.

If you use Barclays, please make sure you stay on top of them as the 'offshore' administration is absolutely appalling.

Just a note about an MBA. Go into it with your eyes open. I do not know anything about you, but with this course, it is MUCH more valuable to have significant works experience when doing the course so if need be, wait a few more years. Also it will be VERY time consuming. I seem to have to try to cram for probably 50% of the modules I am doing as I just do not have the time to study properly. Whilst I will 'pass', I probably won't take as much learning away from it as if I had the time to study properly.

On the plus side though, since starting my MBA, I have been extremely fortunate to secure 2 new jobs, more than doubling my salary in the process and this was from a £35kpa start, so no doubt it can help your career.

Lost_Prophet

Thanks Silo,

1. I'm 100% fine with late payments. Have car finance and the 0% credit card but nothing else significant which these two account for about 20% of my earnings. I'm just concerned that if I get rejected by the bank I'll be able to afford it but will not be able to save anything

2. Thanks for clarifying the structure. Manchester require a payment per module too but was hoping that the business schools may accept a monthly payment instead of one lump sum at the start. I guess this is not the case?

3. Did you take out multiple 0% cards? I have previously had the Tesco 0% card which I paid off a year ago. I now have the M&S 0% card which is due in May. So my only option rests with the Halifax 0% card unless I can re-apply for the Tesco 0%?

Thanks for the tip about the MBA - I've been told experience would be better (I have ~5 years industry experience at 25) but I feel that now is the time to do it whilst I am building my career and while I have minimal commitments outside of work

silo24

On the facts in evidence, I would think you'll be ok in terms of being accepted.

If they are wanting a payment each term for 2 modules, I suspect you are looking at about £4000 per term, £12000 per year, of which P&CDL will give £5000 in two equal installments.

What will happen is that you will get the first payment at some point during term 1 and the next at some point towards the end of term 2/beginning of term 3. If you do a balance timeline you will notice that unless you can pay all of Term 2's fees, you will go behind in payments. Most Uni's will work with you on this and won't kick you out straight away!

If I were you, i'd start the £600 a month saving now and then not plan on starting until you have at least £2400 in the bank if you want to stay in the black.

Either way, the Business Schools need your money so best talk to them to see what kind of arrangement they can come up with.

As for 0%, I put the deposit on this and then a chunk of my 2nd year fees. Have been slowly reducing the balances and hopefully will be clear relatively soon.

Good luck anyway and enjoy it. It is an enlightening experience and the people you interact with are more important the than taught subjects in my opinion, so try to make sure you get a good cross section of students, not all fresh from their 1st Degree at the age of 21....