Corporate sponsorship = better acceptance rate?

It's not something I've ever heard of before. Financial aid for part-time programs is loans, loans and more loans. Grants and scholarships are non-existent. The schools don't care who pays them - you, the government, or your company. They just want the bill paid. I don't see how it would be a factor in admissions.

Now, if the school has a pre-existing relationship with your company, that could be a factor. If they know other students have come into the program from there and done well, they may be more inclined to accept others.

My $.02 on this topic: schools don’t care who pays for you, but it does make a difference. For example, if you are from a big accounting firm, not all the applicants from the same firm would get the sponsorship offer. Hence, the school sees this is an added factor to measure success and a distinguishing characteristic.

My thoughts on corporate sponsorship.

1) For Exec programs: it's a must.
2) For other Part Time and full time programs: I assume it helps in two ways.

First, as already mentioned, to show some hard evidence that your employer thinks you are top performer. Specially important if your employer sponsors several people yearly. Imagine coming from McK without a sponsorship offer. That would look very bad!

Second: you would be countering the employment risk as you would be automatically employed upon graduation.

I assume top schools would not care much about the employment risks of "star applicants". They'd know they will get a job. But for borderline cases who are otherwise very well qualified, the sponsorship could be a factor (for eg: the applicant had a somehow weak interview, but his essays, stats, goals are all ok, so the adcom could discount the importance of interview performance since the applicant already has a job offer).

Additionally, the further down the clusters you go, I expect sponsorship to become particularly relevant for internationals. You would not want your international grads hanging around without jobs because employers are not sponsoring visas. So, you try to get sponsored internationals. Think Near Elite and beyond for this factor to become really relevant. Although it would apply to a lower extent to any other school outside Ultra - Elite.

Cheers. L.

Some great responses, thanks! I think i like this forum!

Most definitely YES..