Ivey MBA - Financing options

by: George Kesselman
Ivey MBA - May 2007 Cohort

During my visit to Oxford Saïd Business School I received a suggestion that I should try to finance my MBA by finding a sponsorship from my rich relatives. I decided to follow a more conventional approach by taking out student loans.

In Canada there are two types of student loans: Government students loans, which don't accrue interest charges during the course of the program, and student loans from private banks. The maximum amount for the government student loans (available only for Canadian residents) are about $330/week for the maximum of $17,200 per year. Which in itself is not much in the big scheme of things, considering the fact that I'm looking ahead to one expensive year ahead of me. However, private Banks come to the rescue and lend up to $70,000 covering majority of your tuition costs and some additional expenses.

To be absolutely honest, I was surprised to get an approval for the maximum line of credit from a bank two hours after submitting my online application. Considering the fact I don't have that much of a Canadian credit history I take it that banks feel pretty comfortable about the fact that we will make good money after an MBA.

There are four banks that provide special student loans to Ivey MBA students.

Toronto Dominion
Royal Bank of Canada
Bank of Montreal
Scotia Bank

All the loans have similar conditions. At this point they all offer a line of credit with an interest rate of Prime + 0.5 and interest only payments while you are in school.

Be careful to read the fine print, apparently RBC at one time adjusted the interest rate on their loans to Prime + 2% after students graduated from the program.

Talking to current students it sounds like TD student loans are by far the popular choice. One thing to keep in mind, if you enter an application online for the TD student loan, you might be directed to visit your local branch. At the local branch I was told that I will definitely need a co-signer. Considering the fact that I've been offered higher limit line of credit without a co-signer at Scotia Bank, I explained the situation and negotiated to take out the loan under the same conditions as were offered to me at Scotia.

Something else to consider: Average MBA entrance award at Ivey is $10,000, which is about 17% of the tuition cost. (you will receive all your scholarship awards with your acceptance letter).

From what I gather, International students will either require a Canadian co-signer or they will have to through The Paras Education Foundation (read more on Ivey Financing site).

NOTE: For the detailed information about Ivey MBA financing options please refer to the following document

On an unrelated to Ivey note, I also came across interesting student loan program at Rotman School of Business, which actually pays your student loan interest while you go to school.