Archinect
anchor

Do firms pay for grad school?

Charisma124

Do firms cover back-to-school costs for new hires?

My mother and her family are very old-school, you know, the days of yore when you stayed loyal to one firm for the rest of your life, and they gave you the 'hook up' with everything from school, to retirement over time.

She insists this must still be true, though I have not heard of an architecture firm paying for a full graduate degree.

has anyone done this? Should I prepare myself, is there bargaining involved? After a certain number of years? How long is your 'endentured service' afterwards?

 
Aug 13, 07 1:14 am
mdler

your mom is full of shit

Aug 13, 07 2:31 am  · 
 · 

i have never heard of this. think - why would a firm do that? i know of firms that really wanted to keep someone so they offered them a job to walk into after grad school - but paying for their degree - never.

Aug 13, 07 3:31 am  · 
 · 

my brother's public transit agency paid his way through a masters in public administration.

my firm laid me off when my workload at school would no longer allow me to work 15-20hrs a week.

Aug 13, 07 7:30 am  · 
 · 
sunsetsam

Some Jobs pay for grad school, a lot of Defense Companies pay for grad school if a certain position is needed and they want YOU to do it. For example, my sisters job is paying for her masters in Systems Engineering at George Washington University because she worked at the company and already had a CS (programming) undergrad and wanted her to do both tasks. But I never heard of this in the architecture field, just for the main reason that Undergrad is enough? And that maybe architecture is mainly based on experience (after the "official" amount of education) compared to programming, or web design where you can learn a lot of new things through academia.

Thats my theory.

Aug 13, 07 8:08 am  · 
 · 
vado retro

they might pay for a backpack.

Aug 13, 07 9:29 am  · 
 · 
pvbeeber

No way in hell, unless you agreed to some form of indentured servitude afterwards.

Aug 13, 07 9:35 am  · 
 · 
quizzical

many aspects of this topic already have been discussed here: Any firms that will pay student loans?

Aug 13, 07 11:50 am  · 
 · 
won and done williams

yes, my firm will pay a portion, but you have to be working full-time simultaneously with your studies. i don't know how these kids do it.

Aug 13, 07 11:58 am  · 
 · 
meta

a question for J those guys who had the benefit, did YOU to talk to your principals or was that extended as an offer?

anybody heard stories like these offered to interns? sorry for these tangents charisma.

Aug 13, 07 12:09 pm  · 
 · 
outed

a lot depends on how you define 'pay for school' -

for example, one of our current employees we sponsored through a co-op program the entire time they were in grad school. so, they worked part time for us (13hrs/wk), but we, in effect, paid for their tuition throughout the duration of grad school. not room or board or books, etc., but still something that worked out really well for all sides. and, there was no 'obligation' for them to come back to the firm afterwards.

would we have paid for the tuition (much less any of the incidentals) outright, with no expectation of some work time involved? no. and i cannot imagine anyone would.

one last thought: there are several firms i've heard of, though, that are more willing to pay for someone to get an mba (usually on an executive schedule), but the people have been with the firm for a number of years and the expectation is that they will be 'career' people there.

Aug 13, 07 12:10 pm  · 
 · 
won and done williams

it's a known policy in my office open to all full-time interns who still need to get their m.arch. it's not something you have to negotiate. i don't know for certain, but would say it is relatively common in most larger corporate offices.

Aug 13, 07 12:18 pm  · 
 · 

The most I ever got was a small scholarship from a construction firm I worked for one year. But I was already in my last year of undergrad by then... they gave me a 2k scholarship on top of my pay for summer work, and when I agreed to stay part time through the school year they doubled the scholarship. It wasn't much in the context of full tuition where I was going, but it helped.

But as far as the paying of an employee to go back to school while not working part-time, I've only ever heard of that for engineers.

Aug 13, 07 12:26 pm  · 
 · 
quizzical

jafidler: when your firm pays for an intern's grad school, is there a lingering obligation for that person to remain with your firm for a fixed period beyond graduation? if so, how is that handled, please?

Aug 13, 07 12:59 pm  · 
 · 
Ms Beary

a friend of mine, who works in finance, will get any continuing education paid for by her company, whether it is relevant or not. So maybe you can work for them and have them pay for your architecture masters? Her undergrad was biology or something. Not sure if it was limited to part time. I could find out.

Aug 13, 07 1:07 pm  · 
 · 
aquapura

I think it's quite common for larger Fortune 500 type companies to pay for grad school college tuition. Can name several local companies around me that I know of offering this. However, I believe they require you work there, probably full time, while earning your degree. Ever wondered why there are so many nights & weekends business degrees available? Now show me the MArch program on nights & weekends?

Aug 13, 07 1:20 pm  · 
 · 
won and done williams

there is no obligation to stay at the firm. the cut-off for reimbursement is relatively low and there is the restriction that the student must also work full-time while in school, generally restricting employees to go to school locally. no one is going to harvard here. it's really meant to help interns get the required degree to work towards professional licensing.

Aug 13, 07 2:17 pm  · 
 · 
garpike

McDonalds helps pay...

Aug 13, 07 2:31 pm  · 
 · 
Ms Beary

my co-worker got a dual masters (arch and urban planning) while working "full time". "quotes" because it was full time status, but not 40+ hours a week, although it was sometimes. Two mornings a week, and then night classes if I remember correctly.

Aug 13, 07 3:35 pm  · 
 · 
vado retro

you could do it. its just with studio three days a week at four hours a pop and all the classes during the day its hard to do it. but why would they want a professional degree to accomodate those in the profession? that would make tooo much sense.

Aug 13, 07 3:45 pm  · 
 · 
aking

Maybe you could refer your potential employer to this article http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/worklife/08/01/employee.tuition.ap/index.html

Aug 13, 07 10:33 pm  · 
 · 
Ms Beary

wow, crazy article, as long as they worked 20 hours a week they could participate (in one company)? and con ed wasn't necessarily to be in the field the employee was in? We can't even get training in the software we use everyday.

Aug 14, 07 11:03 am  · 
 · 
eastcoastarch03

your mom gave me a ride

to the office that is

Aug 14, 07 1:20 pm  · 
 · 
meowmeow

I think it's common in engineering for firms to pay for school, and definitely in defense. My boyfriend is a software engineer in defense and his company will pay his tuition and still give him half his salary while he is in school (and half is salary is probably what I will be making once I start a job). He also doesn't have to work while he is in school. Should have been an engineer.

Aug 14, 07 6:02 pm  · 
 · 
psycho-mullet

I got a $100 Christmas bonus and dinner at a swanky restaurant with the firm.

Aug 16, 07 6:59 am  · 
 · 

Block this user


Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?

Archinect


This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.

  • ×Search in: