Your Complete Guide to MBA Sponsorship

UPDATE: This article was originally posted on March 23, 2020. It has been updated with new information and tips below. 

With the price of an MBA creeping up year after year, many potential applicants find themselves wondering just how they will pay for this career-boosting degree. 

In addition to numerous scholarships and loan programs, you may also be able to ask your company to fund your degree. However, with fewer and fewer companies offering these types of programs, it’s important to know exactly what sponsorship entails (strings are inevitably attached), if this type of funding option is right for you, and how to secure a sponsorship. 

That’s why we’ve created this comprehensive guide that walks you through everything you need to know about MBA sponsorship, as well as a set of guiding questions to help you determine the best way to reach your goal of attending a top MBA and accelerating your career growth. 

 

What is MBA sponsorship?

First and foremost, it’s important to note that there are technically two types of sponsorship: financial sponsorship and time sponsorship. 

Financial sponsorship

This is generally the first thing that comes to mind when applicants think of sponsorship. 

Financial sponsorship entails an applicant’s company paying (in part or in full) for the costs associated with the MBA. In many cases, companies will pay only for tuition fees (either partially or in full), but some companies do cover the entire cost of attendance. Since there is such a high level of variation, it’s important to check the sponsorship policies in place at your specific company. 

Time sponsorship

In the case of time sponsorship, your job is secure and is officially waiting for you at the end of your degree, though your company does not provide any financial assistance. 

Be careful, however! If your boss says that he would really like to have you back after your MBA, this is not time sponsorship. Time sponsorship is a formal agreement in which the company commits to hiring you back after your MBA, not a verbal indication your job is secure. 

If your company does informally plan to have you back, however, you might consider including that in one of your letters of recommendation. Since it’s not a formal agreement, you can check the box that you’re sponsored, but you can have your recommender highlight the company’s strong interest in re-hiring you post-MBA. 

Sponsorship conditions 

As the saying goes, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. This is no different for MBA sponsorship. Especially if your company is offering financial sponsorship, there are almost always strings attached to the sponsorship offer. 

The most common condition is that applicants commit to returning to the company after their MBA and to working for a specific amount of time afterward. In many cases, if the applicant decides to take another job post-MBA or leaves the firm before the previously stated amount of time, the applicant is responsible for paying back part or all of the sponsorship amount. 

Again, since sponsorship agreements vary drastically from company to company, make sure you verify your company’s sponsorship policies before making any decisions. 

 

Who offers MBA sponsorship?

According to Poets&Quants, the three industries that most often provide MBA sponsorship are consulting, financial services, and government. 

For example, one of the most common groups of sponsored candidates we work with are consultants from McKinsey, Bain & Company, and BCG. Though there are slight variations (some firms offer sponsorship to employees who successfully complete a certain number of years at the company, while other firms offer sponsorship after employees have been admitted into an MBA program), many consulting firms offer full-tuition sponsorship to high-performing talent. 

If you don’t work in one of the three industries mentioned above, however, it’s not impossible to obtain MBA sponsorship. In fact, there are still many other companies that provide MBA sponsorship, ranging from the military to pharmaceutical companies to engineering companies to tech companies. 

As such, if you’re not sure if your company offers sponsorship, we suggest you first comb through the company site and handbook to gather all the information you can find about educational sponsorship. Then, we suggest scheduling a meeting with your manager or an HR representative to discuss your findings, as well as any other opportunities the company may offer that you were unaware of. 

If you find out that your company does not offer sponsorship, this does not mean you should immediately try to land a job at a company that does. 

Though switching to a company with MBA sponsorship could make sense if you are at an early phase of your career, switching jobs right before you apply to an MBA – or during the application process – does present a certain set of risks you should consider before making the decision. 

Furthermore, many companies offer tuition reimbursement or MBA scholarships after you land your first post-MBA job. Though this does mean you will have to initially foot the bill for your MBA, you can often find a competitive post-MBA job that lends similar benefits to those afforded your classmates who are sponsored from the outset. 

Regardless of which situation you find yourself in, we advise against making any rash decisions. Before you make any decisions, ask yourself what you hope to achieve with your career, why you are pursuing an MBA in the first place, and how you plan to pay for your degree. With careful thought and consideration, you’ll be much more likely to successfully build a career (and sponsorship!) plan that truly works for you. 

 

Should you accept company sponsorship?

There are so many different elements of an MBA application and numerous factors that will make the right move different for each person at every step of the application process. 

That being said, based on our years of experience helping our clients both get admitted into top programs and make sure they create an MBA and career plan that works for them, there are a few key questions you should ask yourself when deciding if pursuing MBA sponsorship is right for you. 

 

Are you willing to commit years to your job post-MBA?

For many of our clients, business school represents a time to be exposed to new ideas and to test out potential career switches. 

Our client Camila, for example, had built a very successful career in the real estate industry but thought perhaps she’d find greater career fulfillment in another industry. After landing a spot at UW Foster, Camila was exposed to a number of opportunities in the tech industry and ultimately obtained a job at Amazon. 

If you’re like Camila, and the MBA represents a time for you to try new things, accepting sponsorship may limit your options. Though most sponsorship contracts do allow you to break the agreement, in the majority of cases, you must pay the company back at the moment the contract is voided. Since this can often be a hefty sum to obtain in a short amount of time, you may want to consider how interested you are in switching companies or careers from the outset. 

 

Are you interested in relocating to the US?

The MBA has long been a great tool young professionals use to accelerate their career growth by pursuing opportunities in new geographic locations. For many applicants, landing a job in the United States is their ultimate goal. 

Though visas have been increasingly tough to obtain in recent years, the proliferation of STEM-certified MBA programs has broadened the playing field. That’s because STEM-certified programs allow graduates to work in the US for 3 years (rather than the standard 1-year offered through the traditional OPT program) before additional visas are needed. 

We also worked with another client, Leticia, who was working as a management consultant. After earning a 100% scholarship from Kellogg, however, she determined that she’d rather not take her company’s sponsorship agreement so she could take advantage of future job offers that might allow her to stay in the US post-MBA. 

As such, if one of your goals in the MBA is to relocate to the US (and your company has not made this option available as part of your sponsorship agreement), you may want to consider whether or not accepting sponsorship is the best move for your career. 

 

Do you have other funding options?

As a consulting firm proud to work with international applicants all over the world, we here at Ellin Lolis Consulting know just how stressful fluctuating foreign exchange rates can be when considering business school.

That’s why we think one of the most important factors to consider when planning your MBA journey is how you plan to pay for your degree. Though there are many funding opportunities out there that ensure you’re able to afford your degree, sponsorship does offer the added benefit of not having to worry about whether or not your currency devalues, for example. 

TOP TIP: We suggest creating a budget to determine how much you will spend during your MBA (make sure to include more than just tuition!), how much your loan repayment installments would be, and how much you would need to earn to both pay back these installments and maintain your quality of life. Though it may seem obvious, it’s a great tool to determine just how important sponsorship is to maintaining your financial health. 

What do your mentors say?

If you still can’t decide if you should accept sponsorship or not, we suggest reaching out to your professional mentors and asking them to weigh in. Your mentors should know you, your values, and your ambitions well, making them the perfect people to seek out for advice when making this life decision. 

 

How does sponsorship influence your admissions chances?

When considering whether or not to accept (or pursue!) MBA sponsorship, it’s important to consider how this factor will influence your admissions chances. 

One of the most important benefits of an MBA is your ability to use your business school degree as leverage to earn a higher salary and land a more senior position. 

However, as you get older and advance your career, promotions are less frequent. This is due to the simple fact that most organizations have few people at the top calling the shots, meaning it may take years for you to nab an open C-Level position. 

Since helping candidates advance their careers (and, hopefully, earn more after the MBA than they did before) is a key priority for traditional MBA programs, the older you get, the harder it is to leverage a traditional MBA into serious gains for your career. 

As such, if you are on the older or more senior side of the applicant pool (usually 30 is a good cut off), sponsorship may be beneficial as it demonstrates that you have a secure job waiting for you. 

On the other hand, we have also helped numerous older applicants apply to top programs and pass without sponsorship. Similarly, we have worked with many candidates who chose to forgo “safe” sponsored jobs to pursue their career ambitions and were consequently admitted to multiple Top 10 programs. 

For that reason, we suggest you give more weight to how sponsorship affects your career plans and financial situation when deciding if sponsorship is right for you. 

 

Find your application ally

During the MBA application process, you will need to make thousands of decisions that will impact your life for decades to come. 

One of the most important decisions is how to pay for your MBA. 

When making such an important decision, having a trusted ally who can use their deep knowledge of your profile, your options, and what different business schools offer can be the difference between making a smart financial investment in your future and wishing you’d done everything differently.

That’s exactly why I pursued my career coaching certification several years ago. I know that the MBA is an important step in accelerating your career, but I also know just how important it is to make sure all aspects of your decision to pursue an MBA work for you. 

So, whether you’re thinking about switching companies to have a chance at sponsorship, are already sponsored and want to know what your options are, or haven’t even begun developing your career plan, you can count on me to put my years of experience to work for you in ensuring you take the right next steps. 

Over 98.9% of our clients get accepted to at least one of their preferred programs, and we’d love to help you, too! If you’re interested in working with us, apply to have us support you during your MBA application journey.