Residency requirements, the in-person component of many top-ranked online MBA and other online graduate programs, can certainly have their benefits. By meeting on campus or elsewhere, online students often get to network with faculty and peers, visit businesses and work on group projects.

But there’s also a potential drawback: the occasional need to miss work.

Most online students can probably get away with taking a week or a few days to spend on campus or at another location required by their program. And a smaller subset might be able to take the time without dipping into vacation, experts say.

But if a residency comes at a busy time, or requires vacation time an employee hasn’t racked up yet, some online students might find themselves in a bit of a predicament.

There is still cause for hope, however. Below are several ways that online graduate students can win employer support for an in-person residency.

[Find out how to convince an employer to pay for an online degree.]

1. Talk about the advantages to the employer: Selling an online residency involves the same strategy students likely used to get their employer to support an online degree in the first place: focusing on how the move will benefit the employer.

Students should talk about networking opportunities, emphasizing the chance to acquire new knowledge through peers and to make business connections that could help the company’s bottom line.

“Say, ‘I am going to hear from different industry and business leaders and will come back with things that we can apply in our own workplace,'” says Amy McHale, assistant dean for master’s programs at Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management, whose online MBA program requires students to come to campus or another location three times for a three-day weekend for networking, seminars and other opportunities.

Students should be specific about the experiences they will have at the residency, outlining what kind of networking they’ll do and what kind of projects and courses they will participate in. The more personal they make the discussion, the better, says Phil Powell, faculty chairman of Kelley Direct, Indiana University’s online business school programs.

“If you use first person , that subtly reminds the employer that you are enhancing their human capital,” says Powell, whose online MBA program requires students to come to campus for two weeks for academic advising, courses and networking. “It becomes more personal to the business. It’s a powerful way to strengthen the sale.”

2. Offer to work: It might be less than ideal, but if a residency requirement comes at a particularly hectic time at the workplace, students can always offer to keep up with their duties while they’re away.

[Weigh the benefits of an online MBA program that involves residency.]

“We see that all the time,” says Elsbeth Magilton, who oversees the online LL.M. program in space, cyber and telecommunications law at the University of Nebraska, which requires students to come to campus for at three days at least twice during the program. “Many of the attorneys that we have had visit us, I see them checking their email and continuing to work during breaks. You are probably going to lose some productivity, but at the same time that doesn’t mean you are going to lose all productivity.”

Physician Christopher Clark received his online master’s in health administration from Pennsylvania State University–World Campus in December 2014. During his first residency — two weeks at the beginning of the program — he was working as a chief quality officer at a hospital. During his last — one week at the end of the program — he was a medical director at an insurance company.

On both occasions, his employer let him go to campus without taking vacation days, but not without a caveat: He still had to manage his work.

[Discover four time management tips for online students.]

“I was willing to do as much of my job as I could remotely while I was still matriculating,” he says. “There is a lot you can do from a remote site. My advice is make sure that your work is covered as best you can. More often that not, you are going to be able to balance or to delegate.”

3. Take a lighter load that semester: When her students are worried about missing work for a residency, Magilton at Nebraska suggests they plan ahead and take a lighter course load during the term they’ll be gone.

Online students typically need to dip into work time for some of their studies, be it leaving early to log in to a live session or taking a longer lunch for studying, she says. But when the time comes to leave work for a residency, it’s best to do so at a time when work disruptions have been minimal.

“Maybe only take one other course that semester,” she says. “That way you are not asking so much of your employer and of yourself.”

Trying to fund your online education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for Online Education center.

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3 Strategies to Sell an Employer on an Online Grad School Residency originally appeared on usnews.com