Two brothers have made business school more attainable for veterans. Lorenzo Fertitta and Stern School of Business alumni Frank Fertitta donated $15 million to the school for a new MBA program designed for veterans.

Around 20 students will receive this scholarship next year, which reduces their tuition from $66,588 to $30,000 per year. The Fertitta Veterans Program also provides customized academic and professional support to help veterans overcome transitioning from the military to business school.

Tuition fees are an important factor for most MBA students when they choose which school to attend. Stern MBA Samantha Sarkis said although she was not in the Fertitta Veterans Program, the full scholarship NYU offered her made Stern stand out among other top-ranked business schools.

“Business school is a huge financial investment and an even bigger one when attending one in NYC because the cost of living is almost as much as your tuition,” Sarkis said. “When considering what schools to attend, I weighed out the opportunity costs of the school brand, location, opportunities and tuition. While researching schools, NYU was the only school that offered a non-9/11 GI Bill scholarship, which was extremely appealing given the strength of its brand, location and unique opportunities of living in NYC.”

Besides the scholarships, the Fertitta Veterans Program also provides extra academic resources. The Associate Dean of MBA Admissions and Program Innovation Isser Gallogly said a specific summer program is designed for students to get familiar with some basic business concepts and prepare to enter the real business world.

“Students will participate in a six-week summer term during which they earn six credits and participate in a variety of academic, leadership and career development activities,” Gallogly said. “Students will take the core course statistics and data analysis, as well as accounting.”

Sarkis also said that the transition from the military to business school is sometimes difficult for veterans and that students sometimes need networking resources to get in contact with other NYU veteran students.

“Your skills and experiences are hard to translate and not relatable amongst your classmates,” Sarkis said. “You don’t have specific strengths in subjects such as finance, accounting, statistics or economics, therefore it’s nice to converse with other veterans to know you’re not the only one whose challenged in these areas.”

And that’s not the only reason why veteran students need to socialize. Vice Dean of MBA Programs Raghu Sundaram said part of the support the new program offers is both school-wide and city-wide networking resources for students to build relationship with more people in the professional field and get used to life in NYC.

“A part of it is professional: connecting them to alumni who are themselves veterans and who can act as mentors, assisting in this transition process and to corporations who hold special events for veterans,” Sundaram said. “And a part of it is social, allowing them to bond with each other even as they get to know the school and the city.”

A version of this article appeared in the Monday, Nov. 7 print edition. Email Coco Wang at [email protected].