Graduate School Benefits

lbynum·Nov 02, 2021

Hi Elpha community,

I wanted some help from recruiters or industry professionals about what to expect with Graduate School benefits.

My current company pays for my graduate degree as long as you stay at the company for 2/3 years after completing the degree (an unlimited amount since it is in computer science). I would really like to make a change in roles, but I really would need another company with the same types of graduate benefits.

How common is this practice? Would it be difficult in todays job market to find a company willing to meet those graduate school benefits?

Thanks!

Iynna·Nov 03, 2021

In B-school there's a number of students who are company sponsored (happens a lot with consulting firms like McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and Deloitte not sure about others in that tier) and the idea is that you come back work for them. If you don't, you might have to pay back (?) not sure how this works but I can tell you I have a lot of classmates who want to make the move!I also know of companies that do tuition reimbursement so when they hire you post MBA they are able to pay some part of your education!

maggiewolff·Nov 03, 2021

I've been in graduate school part-time since 2018 and have worked for two companies during this time - a commercial real estate and a large tech company. They both offered a $5,000 annual tuition reimbursement that had to be paid back if you left within a certain amount of time. This seems to be pretty standard in the US. There is some kind of tax break that anything under $5,250 in one year is not taxed like income. I did leave my previous company and they did make me pay back everything they had given me within the previous 18 months (which was around $7,000). I think my current company has a 6-month payback timeframe. Any money given before that timeframe would not have to be paid back.Even though paying back that money wasn't ideal, I did negotiate for a higher signing bonus with my current company to offset it. From what I've heard, getting your entire tuition bill paid for comes with a much longer time commitment and also seems much less common, I've really only heard of it at really profitable companies who want to tout all the MBAs they have on staff (like consultancies).