How Prodigy Finance is Funding your MBA

Prodigy Finance MBA F1GMAT Interviewed Liz Reid - the Student Brand Manager at Prodigy Finance, to learn how they have funded hundreds of international MBA students.

1. How did Prodigy come into existence?

Prodigy’s Founder, Cameron Stevens, experienced firsthand the challenges of financing an international MBA when he attended INSEAD as a South African, who had been living in Malaysia. When he got to INSEAD, he realized that this challenge was shared by many of his classmates. He and two other MBA students set out to solve this problem shortly after graduating.

2. How does Prodigy Finance works?

Prodigy offers community funded loans to international MBA students attending top business schools. The loans are funded by a combination of business school alumni investors, the business school community, and institutional investors who have an interest in higher education. Students gain access to funding for their postgraduate degree that they often could not afford otherwise. To be eligible for a loan, students need to be studying abroad (that is, outside their country of nationality or residence). The only exception is that UK students studying in the UK are eligible.

The funds are disbursed directly to the business schools.

3. What is the maximum amount that Prodigy Finance has given as a loan?

The maximum loan size that can be granted is dependent on the tuition cost of the business school program that the student is attending. However, for most MBA programs, the student can borrow up to the full cost of tuition, but it varies according to the profile of individual applicants.

4. What are the evaluation criteria for getting a loan approved?

Students must be admitted to the business school program for which they are applying for a loan (and will need to provide proof thereof). In addition, they will need to provide documentation, including a copy of their passport, proof of their residential address, proof of salary, and a credit report, and where applicable, proof of savings, family support and scholarships.

5. Do students need a guarantor?

No, students do not need a guarantor or co-signer, and no collateral is required.

6. For international students, currency fluctuation is an issue that can increase the cost of funding. How does Prodigy Finance tackle this issue?

There are two things that help to reduce the currency risk for students. First, we don’t have any early repayment penalties and encourage early repayment and bulk payments. In this way, borrowers can build up a credit and choose timing of their payments in advance. Second, we build in a small leeway in that we do accept a payment and don’t charge a fee if the payment is within a specific percentage of the actual payment that is due that month.

7. How is the interest rate calculated?

Interest rates are quoted over a variable/floating base rate of Euribor, Libor or US Libor depending on the currency of the loan. Each applicant receives his or her own individualized interest rate above the variable base. Various factors are considered in calculating this rate relating to both the applicant and the quality of bureau information obtained from them, their affordability and other market rates they may have access to, but also the average target return that Prodigy must achieve for the community of investors. Prodigy gives as competitive a rate as possible up front.

8. How is the interest rate compared to government supported loans?

Rates of government supported loans to tend to be a bit lower than Prodigy’s rates. However, Prodigy will always try to provide as competitive a rate as possible in comparison with other market rates that the applicant has access to. The benefits to the Prodigy loan are that we have local repayment channels in over 30 countries, which many government loans don’t have, and the Prodigy application process is much less arduous that most government loan applications. In addition, being a private loan provider, applicants’ financial profiles are not shared with the government.

9. What is the minimum and maximum repayment period?

The repayment period varies from 7 to 15 years depending on the length of the study program the student is enrolled in. The majority of 1-year program have a repayment period of 7 years, but some have a repayment period of 10 years. The majority of 2-year programs have a repayment period of 10 years, but some are 15 years – for example, a loan for Columbia Business School.

10. When should the MBA candidate pay back the loan?

It is best for the student to pay back their loan according to their schedule outlined in their loan agreement. Typically, this means that they stay within their affordability range post-graduation. It is also beneficial for the community of investors if students pay according to schedule.

However, there are no penalties for early repayment, so student are welcome to settle their loan as soon as they can, if that is preferable for them.

11. Is there a grace period?

Yes, for students doing full-time MBA program the grace period is the study period plus six months after graduation. However, this may be shorter if the student is doing a part-time EMBA, or another program that allows them to work while studying. During the grace period, no payments need to be made, but interest accrues.

12. Who should apply to Prodigy Finance?

Primarily, MBA and EMBA students should apply for a loan. However, Prodigy does offer loans for other courses at some business schools, for example, Masters in Finance at London Business School and postgraduate engineering degrees at Cranfield University.

Students need to be studying outside their home country (the exception being the UK, as specified in Question 2) at a business school or university that has a Prodigy Finance loan program (see Question14 for applicable schools).

13. What happens if a candidate defaults on a loan?

If a student defaults and they get in touch with us, we work with the student to solve any temporary financial difficulties. The next step is to offer a temporary arrangement of sorts, such as a fixed payment (lower than the full amount due) or interest-only payments for a period of time.

Beyond arrangements whether defaults are intentional or unintentional, we then follow the default process, which is to get an award made in the LCIA (London Court of International Arbitration), and thereafter enforcement against the loan due will be made in the student’s local country. Of course, we do everything we can to help the students avoid such situations.

14. How many schools have partnered with Prodigy Finance for 2014-15?

We can currently offer loans to students attending any of the following 38 schools:

Berlin School of Creative Leadership
Cambridge Judge Business School
Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business
Cass Business School
CEIBS
Columbia Business School
Cornell University Johnson Graduate School of Management
Cranfield School of Management and University
Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business
Duke University Fuqua School of Business
ESADE Business School
European School of Management and Technology
Georgetown University McDonough School of Business
Harvard Business School
HEC Paris
IE Business School
IMD Business School
INSEAD
London Business School
Manchester Business School
Michigan Ross
MIT Sloan School of Management
Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management
NUS Business School
New York University Stern School of Business
Oxford University Said Business School
Rotman School of Management
Rotterdam School of Management
Schulich School of Business
SDA Bocconi School of Management
UC Berkeley Haas School of Business
UCLA Anderson
UNC Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler School of Management
University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business
University of Chicago Booth School of Business
University of Virginia Darden School of Business
Wharton Business School
Vlerick Business School

15. How to approach Prodigy as an investor? What are the criteria for investing in MBA candidates?

Those interested in investing should visit the investor page of our website: or email investor@prodigyfinance.com

The only ‘criteria’ is that there are specific requirements that need to be met if investing from the US – anyone interested should send an email to investor@prodigyfinance.com. Otherwise, there are no specific criteria for investing.

People who are likely to be interested are those who want to support their business school as an alum, and those interested in social impact and impact investing, as most of the student we fund come from emerging markets, and many return home and add value to their home country economies.

About Liz Reid

Liz Reid is the Student Brand Manager at Prodigy Finance, and has been at the company since March 2013. Liz handles all student marketing related activities for Prodigy Finance, and is always looking for new ways to reach out to, and engage with, prospective MBA students around the globe.

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F1GMAT's Essay Guides

Harvard MBA Essay Guide (20 Sample Essays)
Growth-Oriented Essay: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)
Example #1: Persistence Narrative
Background Information: The applicant – a design and music talent, shares her journey through several setbacks. She attributes curiosity to her growth.
Curiosity: Philosophy
Curiosity (Explained): Curiosity as a philosophy is tough to translate into a narrative unless you are from the creative industry or your contributions had an influence on a solution or an initiative.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to capture the humanity of the applicant and her influence in music instead of just highlighting how she overcame multiple roadblocks to gain attention as a designer.
Theme: Persistence
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Life Starts at NO (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #2: International Community Building
Background Information: The applicant, a Machine Learning (ML) entrepreneur specializing in healthcare diagnostics, shares how his curiosity to learn other ML algorithms’ evolution in diagnosing Alzheimer’s, cancer, and heart disease transformed his platform into a global community.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to show the applicant’s contributions in diagnostic from 2020 to 2024 by citing two events. Such examples build credibility instead of engagements that were recent. The evolution of the platform from an AI development community to a community for discussing the application of AI in diagnostics is captured through a ‘curiosity’ angle.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Growth through Collaboration (AI in Healthcare) (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #3: Culture
Background Information: The applicant, an Entrepreneur from India narrates his first entrepreneurial experience – facilitating exchange of stamps in the late 1990s.
Theme: Culture
MBA Essay Strategy: Instead of addressing the biases in the investor community that could turn preachy, I wanted to focus on the applicant and his entrepreneurial journey by citing two entrepreneurial experiences – a platform(club) for stamp collection and his Grocery delivery App.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – The American Dream (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #4: Addiction
Background Information: The applicant – a beneficiary of the foster home system, captures the sacrifice his adopted grandparents made to save him from a path of addiction. Paying it back through early intervention among teenagers and community engagement is the curiosity narrative.
Theme: Addiction
MBA Essay Strategy: My strategy is to capture a gratitude narrative in the first one-third of the essay to demonstrate motivation for starting the venture and dedicate the latter part of the essay to the unique solution
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Drug Addiction and Gaming (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #5: Scarcity
Background Information: The applicant, an education major, recognizes that 70% of all students in Kenya don’t have a computer. The curiosity that drives him to pivot from one solution to another is the growth narrative.
Theme: Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: Often, innovation is captured with a ‘hero’ narrative where the applicant is the sole originator of an idea. I wanted to break that cliché and include a person from whom the applicant learned to use a concept called ‘scaffolding.’
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Scarcity (Growth-Oriented HBS Essay Example)
Example #6: FinTech
Background Information: The applicant captures a vulnerable moment of a beneficiary to compare his journey of side hustle before a technology giant noticed his talent. Although cryptocurrency is not a flavor for the year, capture niches where innovation is still happening.
Theme: Education, Child Welfare
MBA Essay Strategy: Empathizing with a techno solution is tough without a strong backstory around the beneficiary. For the essay, I wanted to clearly establish the beneficiary – Rami, before the applicant narrates the similarities to his journey and finally shares the solution that emerged from his curiosity.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – FinTech as a Tool for Good (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #7: Learning from the best
Background Information: The applicant – a Remote Engineer in the Oil and Gas industry, reflects on a value that has helped her learn from the best regardless of her geographical limitations.
Theme: Learning
MBA Essay Strategy: The effectiveness of the case-study method depends on the assumption that peers in a Harvard MBA class will help elevate your learning experience. For the essay, I have highlighted the applicant’s recognition of this value proposition with three examples.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Learning from the Best (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #8: Military & Search for IMPACT
Background Information: The most common narrative for US military applicants is to quote 9/11 and the reaction your immediate family had while watching the events unfold. The horrifying moment is captured as a motivation to join the Military. On digging deeper, most applicants would share that their motivations were diverse.
Theme: Career Choice
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to quickly highlight that the applicant had the choice of entering any industry. One achievement to demonstrate his curiosity that I shared in the first half is the invention of a game. Since the game is mentioned in the resume and verifiable through search, I didn’t quote the name. By clearly highlighting the person’s curiosity and career options, the family legacy is used as a factor in joining the military.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Career Choice after a Military Career (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)

Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)
Example #9: Small Business Values
Background Information: The applicant - a second-generation Asian American, is familiar with the values of fiscal conservatism, building relationships, and understanding the daily struggles of the community through his family’s department store.
Theme: Customer-Centric
MBA Essay Strategy: The applicant’s role in developing an App for the store is highlighted in the essay at a crucial part of the narrative so that the essay is not all about his father. I have also humanized the journey – by sharing how upset the father was when the revenues fell by 40%. The essay is about the transformation in the applicant’s value from a person chasing productivity and optimization technique to someone who is truly thinking about the customers.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Small Business Values (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #10: Breaking Away from Family Business
Background Information: A unique challenge that applicants whose parents are public figures or CXOs of businesses or entrepreneurs are the pressure to live up to the parent’s standards or milestones. For the leadership narrative, the burden of legacy is established before the narrative addresses his leadership principles.
Theme: Authenticity
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, I want to capture an entrepreneur’s journey to rise above his entrepreneur father’s image. But I didn’t want to make the entire essay about this complex dynamics. The narrative is around the applicant’s focus on customers and surrounding with teams who keeps him grounded.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Breaking Away from Family Business(Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #11: Creativity and Communication
Background Information: When the overall percentage of users with internet access is 62% in South Africa and the inequality accentuated by the rural and urban divide, the applicant endured the lack of digital infrastructure, and spending close to 22% of the family income on gaining relevant information on schools, global exams, and financial assistance.
Theme: Creativity, Communication
MBA Essay Strategy: The strategy is to share why the applicant values no distraction in a child’s home for optimum education experience. Then I highlight the many roadblocks the applicant’s non-profit faced in receiving fee waiver for their cooperative run ISP.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Non-Profit (Telecom) (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #12: Mental Health
Background Information: The applicant like most didn’t pay much attention to the mental health epidemic until tragedy hit home.
Theme: Communication, Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: A question we frequently get from applicants is whether they should cite tragedy in the family as a motivation for a venture or a non-profit initiative. As long as you don’t linger too much on the tragedy and offer a balanced narrative, there are no restrictions on leveraging unique stories from your life.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Mental Health (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #13: Trauma, Healing & Finding Authentic Self
Background Information: The applicant narrates the absurdity of war in the narrative about the duties in Kabul, and the trauma. Instead of wallowing in on the horror, the applicant takes what makes military applicants strong and guides unprivileged children build life and leadership skills.
Theme: Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing PTSD in an essay, the healing process, and the cues that helped the applicant are too sacred to be shared in a Harvard MBA application essay. However, with the right motivation and narrative arcs, you can capture the essence of your journey without sharing the darkest secrets. That is what I did by merging two stories – the horrors of the war with a non-profit engagement.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Military & PTSD (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #14: Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra
Background Information: In this narrative, the applicant captures Peru’s Silver mining boom of 2006. The growth experienced in her father’s business shifted the family’s economic status to a new stratosphere. Through the changing economic and family dynamics, the applicant finds her voice in a unique way, initially to record her unheard voice but later as one of the youngest subject matter experts in mining and commodities.
Theme: Failure
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, the strategy is to show how life’s unpredictability is a blessing. By narrating two setback events, the essay demonstrates the applicant’s resilience and her acknowledgment of people who made a comeback possible.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Example #15: War, Immigration and Starting Over Again
Background Information: Despite a raging war in Syria, the family of the applicant was unblemished by the chaos. The strategic government assets near the applicant’s house would have made the region an easy target, but it was not. The calmness of her journey is shattered in one event. From the privileges of a cocooned life, the applicant is forced to think about survival, her sister’s future, and her future in the US. The second half of the narrative captures the change that was forced on her.
Theme: Gratitude, Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: I consciously chose not to start the essay with a dialogue or trauma. Two lines are allocated to set up the narrative before the trauma event.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – War, Immigration and Starting Over Again (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)
Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)
Example #16: Creative or Finance
Background Information: The applicant starts the narrative with the origin of her talents. The unbridled enthusiasm receives a reality check when in high school, the applicant’s father has a conversation with her about academics. While the applicant picked up her quant skills, she was reaching over 50,000 loyal fans, and her videos captured 1 million views.
Theme: Passion, Talent
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing vulnerability is the toughest part for Harvard MBA applicants. For this essay example, I have captured the applicant’s uncertainty about career choice throughout the essay. Here the goal is to show vulnerability in the career choice essay while for leadership and growth essay, I could capture one example each from creative and PE industry respectively to balance the narrative. So don’t follow this example without a strategy.
Read: Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay – Creative or Finance (Business-Minded HBS MBA Essay Example)
Stanford MBA Essay Guide (24 Sample Essays)
Columbia MBA Essay Guide (21 Sample Essays)
Wharton MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
INSEAD MBA Essay Guide (19 Sample Essays)
Darden MBA Essay Guide (21 Sample Essays)
Yale SOM MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
Tuck MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
Haas MBA Essay Guide (18 Sample Essays)
NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays + 6 Examples - Visual Essay)
LBS MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Essays)
MIT Sloan MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Cover Letters + 3 Sample Video Statement Scripts + 3 Sample Optional Essays)
Kellogg MBA Essay Guide (11 Sample Essays)
Chicago Booth MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)
Ross MBA Essay Guide (31 Sample Essays)
Duke Fuqua MBA Essay Guide (10 Sample Essays + Two 25 Random Things Samples)
Cambridge MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)