<p>Vanderbilt…</p>
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<p>Not true, as many of these families (like ours) obviously know lots of other families who aren’t in this situation. While our S was admitted to USC, he ultimately decided (with our blessing) to matriculate at Northwestern because of their special Integrated Science Program. I told him he doesn’t have to feel “guilty” about us paying tuition, as long as he’s working hard and making our investment in him worthwhile.</p>
<p>USC is part of a tuition exchange. Sadly, most of the other universities on the list are not the caliber of USC now (maybe they were, back in the day?), except for some of the women’s colleges, which of course didn’t work for us.</p>
<p>Typically these benefits are for tuition, but not fees (which is a rapidly growing category) or room or board. It’s generally under 1/4 the COA at public institutions (where tuition is generally low in any event).</p>
<p>Years ago, Cornell did. It vested immediately back then. My sister went to grad school at Cornell and got free/significantly reduced tuition. I started college elsewhere when my mother got the job. She offered me the chance to transfer, but I was happy where I was. Cornell instead gave $ up to some dollar amount at my school (which was a bargain for Cornell, since I was at a SUNY). They were very clear, though, that acceptance was not part of the deal–you had to get in on your own merits. </p>
<p>Don’t know what Cornell does now.</p>
<p>I also work at a public mid-sized university in Ohio - employees get free tuition for their dependents. I have 2 college aged children and neither have taken advantage of this perk with my blessing. We wanted (and they wanted) the opportunity to go away to school so we did our “work” to find schools that could offer enough merit to make that happen. </p>
<p>Honestly, as an employee who sees our public universities financially struggling w/state $$$ and who at my place of employment is seeing another round (a handful of them in the last couple of years) of people being laid-off (we’re talking 100+, not just a few), I have to question the idea of this free tuition AND question whether they can continue to afford to offer it or not. </p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful option, but I also hear many co-workers not even CONSIDER any other avenue for their child - which I find kind of sad.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt’s tuition assistance is up to 70% of their current tuition. It is portable and applies towards 70% of another schools tuition (up to the current 70% of VU’s tuition.) Can not be applied to fees, room and board. The employee must have 5 years vested before the benefit kicks in.</p>
<p>I know a few people that work at private Colleges in my area and while there is tuition exchange, it’s sounds a bit complicated. For instance, I have a friend whose daughter is a senior. My friend works at a local small tier three private and her daughter applied to three similar colleges in-state. Each of those colleges had just so many spots for tuition exchange students, so they apply like any other student but the financial aid is awarded differently. My other friend works at a top tier public U and they have a whole different set-up, but their kids are going tuition free to other top tier colleges.</p>
<p>Most of the Jesuit universities have this deal (with the exception of Georgetown and Notre Dame - I forget if both are Jesuit, but either way, they don’t participate). There are about 300 schools that participate in the Tuition Exchange program. Like ShakespeareDad said, the scholarships are competitive, though (congrats to your son!). There is also the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) that has a less competitive tuition remission programs.</p>
<p>Lots of small privates do. My employer covers full tuition after 2 years of full time employment. We also participate in 3 tuition exchange groups. Those awards are competative. D1 got it at one school (and declined) but not at another. She’s attending school at my employer. </p>
<p>Does it make college employees less sensitive to tuition issues? Not on your life. As parents, there’s no guarantee our kids will attend school at our employers. Quite a few employee kids go to school here, but by no means all. D1 wanted kind of an odd major. Not every one has it. Lucked out that my employer does. D2 wants a major that my eemployer offers, but with only a 2 person department, I think it’s a bad fit. In the end, we go through the process just like everybody else. We look at the fin aid numbers. Oh, and yeah, on CC, my employer would certainly be called “lesser” and a “no-name” LAC. Fortunately for us, we’re more concerned about an education than the brand name of that education. However, that’s not true of everyone. </p>
<p>I do not believe the state schools here offer any tuition benefit for the employees.</p>
<p>Oh, and Momom2, schools in the cic have to offer 3 new exchange spots a year. Just 3. Some schools probably don’t get many more than 3 applicaitons. But at others, getting one of those 3 spots is super-competative.</p>
<p>Gee, anyone else think that this might make College employees less sensitive to tuition issues the rest of us face?
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Since we do not sit on the Board of Governors, which sets tuition rates, how sensitive we are or are not to tuition issues is completely irrelevant. But to set things straight, the majority of a college’s employees are support staff, and they generally earn salaries that would make public K-12 teachers stop talking about how underpaid they are. Seriously, college support staff salaries are not high … my coworkers with students attending the school where i work often struggle to pay the half of their child’s tuition that is not covered by the benefit. AND their grants are adjusted accordingly, so it’s often a wash anyway, as the tuition benefit often eliminates a university grant.</p>
<p>Tuition breaks and tuition exchange breaks are also counted as income for tax purposes. Thus, someone who makes very little is now CONSIDERED to be making big bucks, due to the ‘free tuition’ they might be getting for their family. I had a friend who had to take out loans to pay the taxes on this benefit since her actual salary pretty much just covered her expenses. Nobody ever tells you that part when they’re singing the praises of this benefit.</p>
<p>ordinarylives - thanks for that clarification. I was told by one of the schools my S was interested in that the CIC was pretty much a “sure thing” but the TE was competitive. I should probably ask again to be certain.</p>
<p>And, it is my understanding that the TE is NOT taxable.</p>
<p>John Hopkins has some tuition benefit, but it is not immediate. University of Maryland offers something too. And my kids can go to the community college where I work for free–oh boy. Driver’s ed was free too.</p>
<p>I am a prof with very many friends with kids hitting the college age…I’ve actually not yet heard of a school that doesn’t provide tuition benefits for full time faculty. I’m sure schools exist that dont provide benefits, but it seems so many do. </p>
<p>I don’t think it makes faculty less sensitive. interestingly, in all the cases I know but one, offspring wanted to go, and did, to a different university than where their parents were faculty. But most faculty I know are business school profs, with dual professional incomes, so sensitivity to cost is less because of income, not because of tuition waivers.</p>
<p>Not that I have anything to do with financial issues at my institution, but I am certainly not insensitive to pricing issues within academia. Even if my D was accepted to and decided to attend my institution (highly unlikely) even after the tuition benefit AND the automatic TN state HOPE scholarship, our out of pocket cost for her to attend would STILL be in the area of $26,000/year. Much better than the sticker price of course, but still a huge number to swallow.</p>
<p>Momom2 - definitely check it out. For the school where d1 was not awarded exchange through cic, her stats were well into the top 25% of admitted students and the music department wanted her. There’s one cic school that I know d2 will be interested in. A co-worker’s d got exchange there, but they have so many applicants for the 3 spots that a committee selects who gets them, and it is very competative. It is by no means a sure thing at some schools - at others it may be. I don’t think my employer gets tons of cic applications, but we’re a pretty small place. </p>
<p>I’m not sure how the taxes work. Our assistant’s d is here on remission. She reports not being taxed because its a benefit, like health insurance, not a scholarship. If one goes to another institution, however, things may be different. In the fin aid package from the school where d1 did get exchange, it was listed as a scholarship. Guess next year will tell. </p>
<p>Kelsmom, I know what you mean about the salaries. At many small privates, even faculty salaries would make the local public school teacher’s say, “Wow, you don’t earn much.” People sometimes make snide remarks about the “free” tuition. Yeah, well let me show you my W2. You could’ve worked at a local college for the last 20 years and gotten “free” tution, too, but I doubt you would have wanted to live on my salary.</p>
<p>From the tuitionexchange.org site:</p>
<p>Are Tuition Exchange scholarships taxable?
You should seek guidance from your own tax and legal professional advisors regarding the taxability of an exchange scholarship. For basic information, consult the Internal Revenue Service Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Education, on the IRS web site ([Internal</a> Revenue Service](<a href=“http://www.IRS.gov%5DInternal”>http://www.IRS.gov)).</p>
<p>Excerpts from Publication 970: “Qualified tuition reduction means a tax-free reduction in tuition provided by an eligible educational institution.” … “for education below the graduate level” …“provided to the following individuals: “current employee, former employee who retired or left on disability, widow or widower of an individual who died while an employee, a widow or widower of a former employee who retired or left on disability, a dependent child or spouse of any person listed above.”</p>
<p>From the cic.edu site:
Is the TEP benefit taxable?</p>
<p>The TEP benefit itself is not taxable. However, Federal tax law requires that scholarships or grants which exceed the cost of tuition, fees, and books, such as scholarships for room or board, is taxable.</p>
<p>I believe that Sage College in upstate NY has this benefit because D’s friend’s mom works there. What’s great is that it is part of a consortium of private colleges and the friend can export that benefit to the other colleges if accepted.</p>
<p>Northwestern. There’s also a deal for HS tuition.</p>
<p>As a parent of a high school junior, with a spouse who is faculty at a private university, I am very familiar with this issue. Generally, the amount of time the university employee needs to work there and the percentage of tuition benefit varies by school. At my husband’s school, the policy is that employees with sufficient full-time employment at the school receive a tuition benefit of 50% of the institution’s current tuition, regardless of where they go to school. </p>
<p>However, as we have gotten closer to the application process, we have learned that most institutions use this tuition benefit to reduce their financial aid award to you as a family, not to reduce your EFC. For example, if our child attends a school with a $50k price for tuition, room and board etc and our EFC is $25,000, we would qualify for roughly $25k in financial aid (loans, grants, work study etc). Our tuition benefit (assume it is $20k, half of our employer’s own tuition of $40k) is not “free money” we can use to meet our EFC. Instead, the institution takes the $20k from the employer and reduces our financial aid award from $25k to $5k. At the end of the day, we still need to meet our EFC. </p>
<p>For us, that means the tuition benefit covers full tuition at our own state flagship and comes close to meeting many OOS publics elsewhere. But at privates, at best it might reduce the size of expected loans as part of a financial aid package, and we still need to figure out how to squeeze the EFC out of our budget.</p>
<p>Right now, I am pleased that our son’s first choice school is our flagship as it keeps it simple.</p>