STEP 1: Complete the Mastercard Tuition Assistance Process

The Mastercard Tuition Assistance Program provides financial assistance to eligible employees for undergraduate and graduate coursework at regionally accredited institutions recognized by the US Department of Education, like the SANS Technology Institute, for college-level credit related to the business of Mastercard. You can use the Tuition Assistance Program in the pursuit of a degree or a certificate at SANS.edu.

Mastercard’s Tuition Assistance Program is administered through International Scholarship and Tuition Services (ISTS). ISTS reviews all requests for policy eligibility, completeness, and accuracy prior to forwarding the request to the manager for review. Please allow 5 business days for this review to be completed. If your request is not eligible, complete, or accurate, you will be informed that changes to your request are required. Mastercard's Tuition Assistance Program will not reimburse an employee for classes started or completed prior to the employee becoming eligible for the benefit.

Students should not request their Letter of Credit (LOC) until after they have been admitted and met with their student advisor.

For questions regarding Mastercard’s reimbursement policy:

For answers to your questions about the Tuition Assistance policy guidelines, or to request support from the Learning and Development team, please submit an Ask People Services ticket. To request support with a Tuition Assistance request submission or to follow up on a pending request already submitted, please contact ISTS: mastercard@applyists.com

STEP 4: Complete the New Student Orientation

• Students are notified of admissions decisions by email.
• If admitted, you will be prompted to accept your offer of admission and instructed to register for and participate in New Student Orientation, which begins the first of every month.
• Following New Student Orientation, you will meet with your dedicated student advisor.
  
  

STEP 5: Meet with your student advisor

Please do not register for your course until the Office of Admissions has confirmed your admission to the SANS Technology Institute and you have completed New Student Orientation. Failure to follow these instructions may result in the course being ineligible for tuition reimbursement.

STEP 6: Register for your course

Please do not register for your course until the Office of Admissions has confirmed your admission to the SANS Technology Institute and you have completed New Student Orientation.

1. Your student advisor will provide you with a course description letter that you can use to obtain a letter of credit from ISTS. 
2. Once you have obtained a letter of credit from ISTS, your student advisor will give you specific instructions to register for your course. Inaccurate information on your letter of credit will require you to obtain a new, accurate letter of credit before you are able to register for your course.
3. The letter of credit allows SANS to directly bill Mastercard.  This means there is no need for employees to pay first and ask for reimbursement later.

You should follow the process outlined in Mastercard’s Tuition Assistance policy following this path:

From The HUB:

• People Place
  • Learning
    • Tuition Assistance

STEP 7: Complete your course

After you have successfully completed your course(s), your advisor will send you a grade report that lists your grade, the payment date, amount, and general payment method.

Important Distinctions

Please Read Carefully

• The SANS Technology Institute (www.sans.edu) is a regionally accredited educational institution and our courses are eligible for tuition reimbursement, while SANS Institute (www.sans.org) training classes are not eligible.
• It is also important that you apply specifically to take only a course offered by the SANS Technology Institute rather than specific SANS Institute training classes. Graduate courses at the SANS Technology Institute (SANS.edu) begin with "ISE" and have four digits, undergraduate courses at SANS.edu begin with "ACS" or "BACS" and have four digits, while training classes at the SANS Institute (sans.org) never use "ISE," "ACS," or "BACS" and have only three digits. As an example, graduate students would apply to take ISE 5101, not SEC 401, even though ISE 5101 incorporates SEC 401 class material and GSEC exam. (see chart below)
• Students must pass the associated GIAC exam within the specified course timeline in order to pass the class. If the student does not pass the exam on his/her first attempt, they will need to purchase a re-take exam out of pocket.