Opportunity Grants at PAEF

March 2014 update: PAEF might not be offering these anymore. To know for sure, better call them at 63-2-812-0945.


For wannabe MBA students like me who want to study in the US, the PAEF office is definitely a must-visit.

PAEF stands for the Philippine-American Educational Foundation. It "is the premier organization in the Philippines dedicated to advancing international education and exchange between the United States of America and the Philippines." Its EducationUSA Advising Center is a good source of information for Filipinos who want to study in the US. It's through the PAEF that one can apply for Fulbright scholarships (I bet you've heard of that!), Hubert Humphrey fellowships and opportunity grants.

Learn more about PAEF's opportunity grants here. In a nutshell, these grants can help pay for testing fees, application fees to US schools, student visa fees and even transportation to the US. I learned about opportunity grants one lucky day that I was scouring the Internet for possible scholarships.

Before submitting your application, you have to set an appointment with the EducationUSA adviser. You also have to prepare an official copy of your transcript, as well as the filled-in opportunity grant form. According to the good people of PAEF, results are out in a month.

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I just submitted my opportunity grant application today, and am crossing my fingers for any good news. Hope it goes through!

I got some helpful tips from my adviser:

1.  Take TOEFL first to get it out of the way. Having a successful exam result could provide some motivation for the tough GMAT.
2.  For any difficulty in GMAT review, ask help from my old teachers.
3.  Prepare my Statement of Purpose then set it aside for review by friends or colleagues, preferably someone from a different field/industry.

It's kinda scary to be taking the first step towards something as big an investment as an MBA, and a US MBA at that. I feel like taking a deep breath and not letting it go for a month until the result is out. Ah, the price we pay for education.
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For more information on PAEF and EducationUSA, you can check out their website.

QS World MBA Fair 2010

I've just arrived from the MBA fair in The Peninsula.

Got there at around 4:30 PM, and secured a seat at the panel discussion hosted by Vlerick, Hult, Melbourne Business School and Nanyang regarding the general MBA admission process (eg. tips on essays, interviews, reference letters and so on).

This was followed by a seminar by the British Council on studying in the UK but I didn't sit in for that.

There were 22 schools featured in the event, if I'm to go by the list given to us. I didn't really stop by each table since I already had "targets" in mind. I got brochures from those schools I was partly interested in, but stayed to chat with the admissions officers of the "targets."

Comparing this fair with the fair I attended 2 years ago, I definitely see the improvement. There were more giveaways this time, and I think the venue was better suited to the event. The space allotted to the fair was not really big, but crowding the tables into a smaller physical space gave a busy, exciting and enthusiastic flavor to the event. Which is how it's supposed to be. And, this time around, all tables had representatives.

I just wish that more schools would give the Philippines a chance in MBA fairs. It's disheartening to see such a few schools willing to make the trip here to meet interested applicants. And I wish there was a chance to experience a sample MBA class. That would really be a crowd-drawer. Even the GMAT admissions seminar was non-existent today (as usual).

Oh well, I still have next year's fair to look forward to.

QS World MBA Fair in Manila

Well, assuming that I have any readers now that I've created this blog, this may be a bit late:

QS World MBA Fair in Manila

It's going to be held tomorrow at The Peninsula hotel in Makati. Fair starts at 5 PM and ends at 9 PM. Registration opens at 3 PM. It would be better to register online to avoid paying that P200 fee.

I hope there really will be a GMAT and Admissions Strategy workshop since I don't recall there was one last time.

There are a LOT of schools in the list. Don't get your hopes too high though; last time I went, there were more than a few vacant tables with only their school banners on them. Such a shame.


More on this tomorrow.