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<p>This offer becomes false advertising when your local newspaper takes this press release from ULowell and puts a title on it that says that CC grads would receive a “free ride” at ULowell. Obviously, the reporter didn’t understand the difference between free tuition and free ride, but I can definitely see how the uninformed could be mislead. Better to be upfront about it and say that a student will get a $1500 discount off of the tuition & fees of $10,500 per year.</p>
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Name one other system where tuition is 15% of the cost and fees are 85% of the cost.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure there are none. Typically, tuition is 80-90% of the cost, and fees are 10-20% of the cost.</p>
<p>So when you see “free tuition” pretty much everyone (even people in MA unless they know about it), assumes most of the cost is covered by it. Because that’s how everybody else works.</p>
<p>Exactly! I am reviving this thread, as a public service to those people, each year, who are victims of this misleading practice by the state of Massachusetts. Now, moderator, go ahead and close this thread, and do what you will. Excellent thread here! It should be read by anyone considering attending Umass-Amherst or Umass-Lowell.</p>
<p>Just an FYI in case anyone is interested. We have a similar problem here in Illinois - tuition is promoted as “locked in” at the first year rate (and it does seem to be) but fees here are 25-50% as high as tuition. Finding a safety is a real problem here if you have a high EFC.</p>