I just paid my freshmen students deposit and continue to search to find what the refund policy of the school is? I know the deposit is non-refundable, but the balance of the payments don’t indicate what would happen to our tuition and fees if my student needs to leave school for a legitimate reason - like illness or injury.
Does it surprise anyone that colleges and universities don’t appear to have a uniform refund policy?
I went reading about the topic and found that most schools provide a pro-rated refund similar to the return of financial aid thru the fifth week of classes and nothing thereafter. Here are three statements I read this week that I don’t know how to evaluate…any suggestions?
If your student has to withdraw from college due to a serious illness, injury or accident, it is unlikely that you will receive a 100% refund.
Only 16% of schools surveyed provide 100% refunds of tuition, and virtually no schools will refund the cost of academic fees, room, and board.
Tuition insurance can provide a refund, however, when schools do not. If you cannot afford the cost of an extra college semester, then it is essential to purchase tuition insurance coverage prior to the start of classes. Coverage must be purchased prior to the start of classes and begins at $33.75 for $2,500 of coverage per term.
Tuition refund insurance not only refunds what you paid, but pays you the financial aid that your child received. It is a good idea to purchase it. However, check the policies for mental health withdrawal and what is covered.
why would a school refund your tuition or room and board because you left because of injury or illness? You’ve already used some of those services and the school cannot recover the money by ‘selling’ the spot to another student.
Your landlord or the grocery store doesn’t refund or excuse your rent or refund for things you’ve already purchased if you are ill or lose your job.
Insurance can be a good idea.
Let’s say the school costs 50k tuition and the kid got 40k institutional aid. So you pay in 10k. Next, one month into the semester your students wants to fulfill a different dream and drops out of college. What happens next? Are you going to get a bill for the remaining 40k because dopping out nullifies the financial / merit aid condition?
@nypapa
If your kid drops out after a month…you would already have paid for the first term, and gotten aid for the first term. You would not get a refund.
Depending on the date of withdrawal…if your kid got something like a Pell Grant, they might have to repay that.
BUT assuming the kid properly withdraws from the school, you would not be billed for semester number 2…and you also wouldn’t receive the aid for semester number two.
And you need to also make sure about housing/board. If your kid drops out…you want that also indicated in the withdrawal…so you don’t get billed for the second term.
Oh…and if they have direct loans…their loan payment deferral period will begin, and if they don’t return to college within 6 months…they will need to start repaying those loans.
Dewars College Tuition Refund Program was very helpful to our family. Bought for 2 kids at different schools.
Was concerned about large tuition paid and frequent sports related injury to one of my kids. Turns out the other kid needed the insurance and the claim was indeed paid. Got back over 80% of the tuition for a semester that was dropped mid-way. Money was well spent, and this from someone who does not trust insurance companies but my interaction with Dewars was just fantastic.