company assisted graduate education?

[child of 2]

Some companies pay for their employees' masters if they decide it's worth the investment. Does anyone have any details on this? I have always been research inclined, but I have absolutely no money to pay for a masters, and I don't want to go into debt.

so if you're under a program like this:

1. does the company make you sign a contract that basically tells you they own you?

2. is this only restricted to public schools with cheap instate tuition and are really easy to get in?

3. how much of the expenses do they cover?

thanks

[emmm]

I have no idea how it was arranged, but I had a roommate in college who had her MBA (full-time) at Harvard paid for by her employer at the time. I think she went back to work there after graduating, but she did not stay there, so they definitely didn't own her. I think they just covered her tuition (but I never asked her if she also got some sort of salary from them).

[sabdo]

I know the way that most places who offer those kind of packages do it by giving money for a part time masters. For example, I have a friend who works at Chevron and they pay 75% of tuition for a part time MBA. I have another friend who works at HP for whom they give $10,000 for a part time masters. Obviously, for these kind of companies the universities have to be local since they would be expecting you to work full time. Therefore, anticipate to be doing a lot of night classes. However, the financial offer as well as the existence of such a program depends entirely on the company.

Also, I believe certain companies allow will pay for you to do a full time masters somewhere (I think Intel does that). However, then you have to sign a contract that you are going to work X number of years afterwards or else you have to pay them back for your education.

[child of 2]

is there a specific name for this sort of thing? I would assume that companies that prioritize in R&D will do this a lot. How can I find more info?

[aberrant]

I personally never heard of any companies that would sponsor an employee to study a research-intensive program in grad school (most common ones are for MBA or other qualifications (e.g. CPA, CFA, etc.))

If I were you (as a Chemical Engineer) I would work for a year or two and save up some money, before I try to get a master's degree.