<p>My son is going to be starting at Cornell in August. We just got a letter from the bursar's office offering us insurance, at the cost of $288.83 for a year, that in case our son were to withdraw from school due to a medical condition, we would be reimbursed for tuition.</p>
<p>What do you think of this? Their justification is that their expenses would remain the same even if our son were to withdraw. I'm thinking, boo-hoo, Cornell University would not be able to make it if they had to refund our tuition?</p>
<p>I think it's pretty crass. Our only other experience was with Wash U and they didn't have anything like this. I don't know what their policy would have been if our daughter had had to leave school for a medical condition.</p>
<p>Should we do it? Our son is in excellent health now but who knows?</p>
<p>Many private and public Us and even private K-12 offer tuition reimbursement, as most students commit for the year or at least the term and are otherwise obligated to pay, even if illness or other specified events cause student to withdraw. </p>
<p>With tuition costing as much as $20K and more per term, it is worth considering. Students do get ill, injured, etc., causing some to withdraw for a term.</p>
<p>Cornell is $45K for tuition alone. I’m not saying you should buy the insurance but my freshman roommate re-injured her knee, couldn’t walk to class and had to leave school midway through the second semester. So things do happen.</p>
<p>S had a friend who got very ill freshman year at USC and had to withdraw for a term. Our D could have benefitted from this insurance when she was very ill.</p>
<p>I realize that students might be forced to withdraw because of illness or injury but I think Cornell could swallow this risk and give the poor family a credit for when the student can return or just a refund if they don’t come back.</p>
<p>Based on the link in #2, partial refunds are given, declining as one gets later into the semester before withdrawal. So the risk is not as big as losing an entire semester’s worth of tuition if one withdraws in the first week, but there is still the risk of losing the entire semester’s worth of tuition (and other costs) if one withdraws late in the semester.</p>
<p>I think if your kid is sick enough to have to leave college without getting credit for any of the classes they should give you a credit when you return.</p>
<p>How much does the 20th student in a class actually cost?</p>
<p>I don’t recall my kids’ colleges offer tuition insurance.
But I received tuition insurance offers from third parties. I did not take because they were too high.</p>
<p>$288 per year is very cheap. I would take it if I have that option. It’s a lot cheaper than health insurance.</p>
<p>Amazon…if you look on virtually ALL college websites, you will see that if you withdraw after a certain date for ANY reason, you get NO refund unless you have the tuition insurance.</p>
<p>It’s like any other insurance…you can take it out and never use or need it. OR you can opt to take it and have it if needed.</p>
<p>Our DD almost had to withdraw for medical reasons one term. We would have lost the money for that term. </p>
<p>DS’s undergrad and grad schools had the same policy.</p>
<p>I would venture that most, if not all colleges have this policy. No refund after a certain date regardless of the reason…unless you have the insurance. And then you not get a refund followi g the terms of the insurance.</p>
<p>We have multiple friends whose students have had to withdraw mid semester and they have had to eat the cost of that semester. </p>
<p>We actually have tuition reimbursement insurance for our middle child’s private school and it costs about what Cornell’s policy cost and the tuition at the private school is a heck of a lot less than Cornells.</p>
<p>This is an interesting one. The catch from our viewpoint is we have 3 kids … so 12 years of insurance payments. So like all insurance costs is an odds thing. In the case of Cornell is it worth paying $3500 to avoid the risk of losing a portion of $22,000 once? And what at the odds of the loss compared to knowing we’d pay $3500? We can afford to self insure against the possible loss of $2200 without spending the $3500.</p>
<p>I don’t think you would ever lose the whole YEAR tuition costs…just the term for which you withdraw. If you can not return the following term, you request a leave of absence, or withdraw prior to the start of the term…and no costs are charged to you.</p>
<p>^ and typically you only lose part of semester’s payment. In #14 the data showed a 6:1 ration of insurance cost to payout it needed … in reality the ratio is probably more like 3:1 or 4:1 since the student would likely get a partial reimbursement. Are the odds really that once in every 3 or 4 years we’d need the insurance?</p>
<p>“if you look on virtually ALL college websites, you will see that if you withdraw after a certain date for ANY reason, you get NO refund unless you have the tuition insurance.”</p>
<p>The LAC my son is attending this fall doesn’t refund tuition after half the semester has passed. I am taking the insurance given that we are full pay and there’s no way I want to lose something that would cost nearly $30k to replicate.</p>
<p>My son had a friend last year who had a very severe infection and had to withdraw from school . . .that definitely influenced my decision to take the insurance. For the kids’ private high school, I never took it . . .figuring that I would probably have a lot more leverage there to argue my case for a credit with two full pay children in attendance . . .and the ability to walk away in any given year.</p>
<p>I don’t think people need insurance every year. The first year has the bigger risk. After the first one or two years you can tell how the kids do in college.</p>
<p>I don’t believe the tuition insurance covers withdrawals due to course failures…at least the insurance MY kids’ schools offered didn’t cover withdrawal due to course failures! I believe it is for emergency withdrawals…illness, death in family, etc. those can happen during any term.</p>
<p>My DDs almost withdrawal happened the second quarter of her senior year. Luckily she did not have to leave.</p>
<p>Not even for all emergency withdrawals–at least, not where my daughter is a student. </p>
<p>For example, while it covers withdrawal because of mental illness, it doesn’t cover withdrawal that results from a suicide attempt. So if you are too depressed to continue in school, that’s covered, but if you are so depressed that you make unsuccessful suicide attempt, you’re SOL.</p>
<p>The tuition insurance offered through my daughter’s university looks as if it may have a lot of loopholes.</p>