Company Sponsorship

The LGO program is a special amongst seemingly comparable MBA programs for many reasons, although one of the most distinguishing is the financial "break" it gives students.

Typical MBA program tuition costs are on the order of $50K/year. According to mbaprograms.org:
The average cost is $40,000 for a year (or $80,000 for two years). Some MBAs are $60,000 a year, and with MBAs the more you pay the more you get. It’s not just the instruction, it’s the brand.

At the Harvard Business School, tuition for the Class of 2011 students is $46,150, according to the HBS website. At MIT Sloan, the 2009-2010 tuition cost for a "regular" MBA is $48,650/yr according to the MIT Sloan website. By comparison, the LGO tuition for both years of the program is $30,193, per the LGO website.

Not bad, huh? ~1/3 the price gets you 2 degrees, company visits, exclusive speakers, and an internship. What do you lose? 2 summers and some time throughout the two years due to the additional engineering courses and the committee work. Also, some shame befalls you if you happen to pursue a career in consulting post-grad.

Alright...we finally get to the subject of this post: Sponsorship.
Throughout LGO's history, partner companies have "sponsored" their employees through the two-year program. What sponsorship exactly entails is to the discretion of the company and therefore varies significantly. For most, sponsorship entails a post-grad employment commitment of ~2-3 years of employment with the sponsoring company; for others, there is no formal/legal/binding employment commitment. Sponsorship benefits often include tuition, housing, and a portion of the employee's salary at the time of leave.

Each year, the number of sponsored students varies based on company performance and policies and "the economy". The LGO Class of 2009 had ~5 sponsored students. The LGO Class of 2011 has only 2.