<p>I was taking about this with a friend this weekend. </p>
<p>She went to college for a year then had to drop out. She got a job and now the company is paying for her to finish her degree.</p>
<p>Are there still many companies out there that do this? If so, do people consider this as an option rather then going to college right away?</p>
<p>I have several friends whose companies paid for them to get their masters. Bachelors are more rare but I’ve seen it for a few people. I guess you just have to be willing to take an entry level job while you’re going to school. But in this economy, many people are taking the same entry level positions when they graduate anyway. </p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
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<p>I think looking at a company’s benefits is as important as the salary. Sometimes the benefits make a lower salary worth taking. Good for your friend!</p>
<p>Many companies have modest tuition reimbursement programs that will reimburse you the equivalent of 1-2 classes/semester. It will take a long time to get your degree that way, but it’s the only way for many people. My company will pay for ANY undergrad program as long as you get a B. For grad school, it must be work related. (I had an employer pay for my entire MBA, which I earned part-time at night going 3 straight years, including summer school. 2-3 classes/semester. I had no life at that time, but H was also doing his Masters, so we at least had each other!).</p>
<p>NJ, I’m picking out a masters program too so I’ll be in the same boat.</p>
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<p>Most larger companies around here will pay for you to continue your education. Usually your coursework has to be related to your job. Some will have limits on the number of classes you can take, others do not. At some levels of employment, they see it as advantageous to have an MBA or whatever and fully fund that. Several of our friends were expected to get their MBA’s and the company paid for them to take an accelerated MBA course so they were done in a year or so.</p>
<p>I had 3/4s of my undergraduate degree and 100% of my graduate degree paid for by companies that I worked for.</p>
<p>In general, getting the undergraduate degree paid for was a lot easier in the 70s, 80s and early 90s. Back then, there were more companies that would hire you without an undergraduate degree and they would allow you to earn your degree on their dime (or the government’s). Today, there are so many people around with degrees that a lot of companies only hire people with degrees and do non-core functions with contractors.</p>
<p>Also, I recall that there was a big shift back in the 1990s where the interpretation of the tax benefit that companies received changed to more strict interpretation of “job required”. Before that, it was loosly defined so that the employer could state that a degree was required for the job or the next job so that the undergraduate degree would qualify for a tax benefit for the company to provide tuition reimbursement. At some point later on, the interpretation was more closely aligned to the work that you were doing or could be doing in your next job. So that meant that they wouldn’t reimburse you for GEDs and courses not directly related to your work which made it a lot harder to get an undergraduate degree paid for by the company.</p>
<p>My company has failry generous tuition reimbursement. I recall one employee that got an MBA via tuition reimbursement and then left to join a consulting company.</p>
<p>I think that tuition reimbursement is a great benefit as the company gets a better-trained employee, the employee has additional reasons to stick around and the government will keep the income and corporate taxes generated by the employee, hopefully at higher levels. I think that tuition reimbursement is a better use of funds in that it provides for education in an environment where it will be more likely to generate further tax revenues compared to other kinds of aid for higher education.</p>
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<p>Worked for one of these. </p>
<p>They would pretty much pay for any undergrad degree that was job related 100% for A/B, %75% for C with a 10,000 yr/ tuition reimbursement cap. </p>
<p>However, I went to school during their flush days where they paid 100% for 2.5 masters with no tuition cap (the half was for the school counseling degree and they would not pay for the education related courses). During that time people said if you did nothing else while you worked there, you should attend school and have babies, because those 2 things were essentially free due to our employee benefits (I did both 
).</p>
<p>Toward the end of my time there, you would have to do a service commitment in exchange for reimbursement - 2 years for a bachelors degree and 3 year service commitment for a masters degree. I took a package, so I owed no money or additional serve commitments when I left.</p>