Consortium

The Consortium (Consortium for Graduate Study in Management) is a US alliance of business schools and companies that runs a shared application and fellowship path aimed at expanding MBA access for US citizens and permanent residents from groups historically underrepresented in management, and for others who share that mission. Member schools accept a Consortium application in lieu of, or alongside, their own.

It is a recruiting and funding channel, not an accreditor.

How it works

Applicants file one Consortium application and designate member schools. Admission is still each school’s decision. A Consortium fellowship, when awarded, is tuition money plus a talent-pipeline relationship with corporate partners who show up to Consortium events.

Membership lists change. Read this year’s schools. A school can be prestigious and not a member. A member school can admit you without funding you.

Example: you apply through the Consortium to four member programs. Two admit you. One attaches a full-tuition Consortium fellowship with a summer internship expectation at a partner firm. That internship is a real constraint, not a networking reception.

How it differs

Forté Foundation is a women’s MBA network with its own fellowships and events. A school merit scholarship has no corporate-partner membership. The Consortium is not a ranking.

Common errors

Treating a Consortium application as a backdoor into a school that would not admit you on the merits. Missing member-school essays that still have to be specific. Assuming every member automatically funds every Consortium admit.

Eligibility rules are the Consortium’s, not the school’s essay prompt. US citizenship or permanent residency is the usual frame; international applicants looking for a shared application should not force this path. Corporate partners attend Consortium events to hire, which helps switchers and also steers some fellows toward those partners. Treat that as a feature if the partner list matches your target desk.