<p>When you start paying a lawyer, guess who always ends up winning? The lawyer…no offense to those of you on this board in the legal profession, but you know what I mean. Over fairly small cases that you are unlikely to win, it’s too much of an expensive gamble.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, they did screw up, and it seems that they really ought to offer some sort of resolution besides ,“Oops!” This sounds like a good idea: “Perhaps she could ask for a financial review, possibly even giving them another school’s offer, showing them that she did turn down more or a comparable offer to commit to the school.” Who knows, they might have some money left.</p>
<p>For those who think that the school is obligated to honor every mistake (and it sounds like they made plenty of them), what if the two scholarships were worth $35K and $45K/yr, not $3.5K and $4.5K/yr. Should they be forced to honor them then? This reminds me of those schools that send out erroneous acceptance letters…and then retract the acceptances a week later. I don’t think I’d trust any colleges admittance or FA offices, they seem to make plenty of mistakes.</p>
<p>In the minutes after the end of the day, the school would be well advised to cut a deal here and honor their mistake(s) for a year – even if the total cost comes in around $70,000 to $100,000. They spend more than that on postage every year, and avoiding bad word-of-mouth is worth at least that much to their future recruitment efforts.</p>
<p>sybbie, You may feel that the OP is not “entitled” to the award but she is certainly entitled to take her business elsewhere. Doesn’t sound like that’s going to happen but I can see why she is upset. I am with the majority who can understand that the OP felt she could count on the accuracy of the award letter.
And yes, I do think it would be better PR for the school to come to some kind of compromise with the family.</p>
<p>I understand that OP is mad (I would be mad to if it were my child). Perhaps, I have seen too many FA awards fall apart (especially after the verification process) and am always seeking clarification and making sure that I cover all of the little details.</p>
<p>" the school would be well advised to cut a deal here and honor their mistake(s) for a year – even if the total cost comes in around $70,000 to $100,000."</p>
<p>What if the mistake was made on 100 students? 200 students? If it was that amount per person, should they honor it for everyone, or just those who make a fuss? I can see a big problem if they honor a mistake for just one person, and not for anyone else. Much smarter to find something from another pot of money, if they aren’t going to give it to everyone.</p>
<p>sybbie, I am the OP and I have never felt entitled. However, I did believe the award letter. To find out at the 11th hour that the award is not valid is really a swift kick to the ribs because we really don’t have any other options at this point. I have two kids in college and it is not easy to foot the bill. I had no reason not to believe the award was wasn’t valid. </p>
<p>I find your opinion interesting and a bit aggressive on the topic. I am a hard working business owner in a very soft economy that really doesn’t appreciate the school’s “oops, I made a mistake.” In the business world, the award letter is a valid offer and my kid’s signed acceptance makes it a valid contract. Is it worth pursuing legally…probably not. In the business world, the business would likely make good on their error. But this is academics playing at business. It is bad business any way you slice or dice it.</p>
<p>Should any organization be required by the terms of an agreement or contract that was negotiated in good faith? Even if they screwed it up?</p>
<p>IANAL, but it seems to me, should the OP want to go down that path, that there are any number of things the OP could sue over. Whether they would win or not, who knows, that’s what the trial is for.</p>
<p>If the school wants an out, they should be covering their behinds in every award letter with an obvious statement that they have the right to correct mistakes. Unless the OP clicked on an “I agree to abide by whatever it says on this web site”, the fact that it says something on the web site really doesn’t mean anything.</p>
<p>I agree with the OP that this is not worth suing over. You like the school well enough that your kid is going there. Suing (or getting aggressive) will further sour your feelings about the school, potentially damaging your child’s experience (not because the school will retaliate, but because your child will sense your negative feelings about the school).</p>
<p>That said, I think that the school would be wise to make a gesture (one year of the scholarship, or just the $2k portion of it, or something). This family is going to be tapped for annual fund (and other) contributions for decades to come. They’ll also likely talk to other alumni families. The good will created by making some sort of gesture may pay dividends in the long run.</p>
<p>I’m so sorry this happened to you Momofboston. We all learned a great lesson from you, so thank you for sharing your experience. I hope the school is able to come up with some money for your child and make it right. Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>The daughter lost her chance to attend other schools, she most certainly has been harmed by this school’s “mistake”. I put it in quotes because I’m open to the possibility this is all part of yield strategy. And if $4000 is supposed to be not such a big deal to the student it’s certainly not such a big deal to the school.</p>
<p>The OP’s kid is entitled to the money, because the school assured her she was. In writing. Had the offer been contingent on maintaining a stipulated GPA, or coming from certain geographical areas, then the award could have been withdrawn from the rising freshman. “We made a mistake, and you’re not the only student we misled” doesn’t cut it.</p>
<p>The university’s tactics have already damaged its reputation much more than the full cost of one student’s tuition. Consider how much money colleges spend on marketing each year. I found a consultant’s online report which estimated the average for 4 year private institutions for “cost to recruit” each enrolled student at around $2,000.</p>
<p>Some regulation re: finaid states all students in a category must be treated the same. Kelsmom may be able to explain it (or correct me,) but my understanding is it boils down to “can’t break the rules for one or sereral kids.” Otoh, there are ways the school does have leeway.</p>
<p>I’m surprised the school didn’t suggest requesting “Professional Judgment” or “special circumstances,” in which you present further info for their consideration. (Related to your financial situation.) This process (seems to me,) would be what could trigger addl funds. I don’t see them breaking their own policy (not to combine those two grants) but would be darned sure the school mentioned does have reserve monies But, I have to admit, I don’t know what the financial strain is, here- whether this is additional aid that helped or the critical dollars that made this school feasible, in the first place.</p>
<p>On the subject of “honey,” last time I read the guidelines, a school, if harassed, does have the right to shut down negotiations.</p>
<p>The part about this that astounds me is that the Award Letter was obviously generated in April, and influenced a decision for enrollment.</p>
<p>They are just now… at the end of June… realizing they made a mistake? About 28 days from wanting full payment? That school should have been notifying EVERYONE immediately after the erroneous award letters were sent out. </p>
<p>This would be similar to requesting a quote for a product, receiving a signed quotation, placing your order with a deposit based on that quotation… and then right before shipment and the buyer’s deadline, the Seller notifies that there is an unknown 10% price increase on the product due to ‘error’.</p>
<p>I understand that $16,000 is a lot of money.
But we hadnt been in the circumstance where we were comparing two schools that were other wise identical except one was $4,000 cheaper.</p>
<p>The way I saw things, one school might have been $4,000 more expensive- but that extra brought alot with it.</p>
<p>I agree that the school messed up & apparently did the same to many of their upcoming class.
I expect the right thing will be to cough it up for those students- however,I also could forsee the school then trying to change it for the rest of the time.</p>
<p>Im surprised it seems to have taken them a while to figure it out.Didn’t they wonder about the reason when they had a higher acceptance rate than usual?</p>
<p>This is a tough situation. I know finaid can change, because I’ve had it change a couple times early in the summer before the bill came. I just saw a smallish $3000 grant disappear from my S3’s financial aid webpage a month ago. It was there in April and it was gone in late May. In this case I think I would be attempting to split the difference for a year if the family can finance years 2 through 4. If $3500 or $4000 a year is not manageable then perhaps this was a college where the OP was cutting it too close to the bone financially to begin with so if a switch up is in order perhaps it’s good it’s happening now and not sophomore year. I would think a lawyer would eat up at least half of what has been lost if not more because it’s definitely not coming back for year 2, 3 and 4 even if it’s achieved for year 1 is my opinion.</p>
<p>Some regulation re: finaid states all students in a category must be treated the same. Kelsmom may be able to explain it (or correct me,) but my understanding is it boils down to “can’t break the rules for one or sereral kids.” Otoh, there are ways the school does have leeway.</p>
<hr>
<p>That would be for federal aid. Schools can do whatever they want with their own money … although I would say that any decision to assist the OP monetarily would almost certainly be done by awarding from some other fund (not the scholarship that should not have been awarded).</p>
<p>That is my guess…if the OP pushed it the OP might get some amount, but my best guess it would not be there year 2,3 or 4 and it would not be the original award funding…it would come from somewhere else. Generally it has been my experience that the COA has enough padding in it to absorb several thousand dollars. Books and transportation have never amounted the what was included in COA and in my world, the kids pay for their own walking around money out of their work during summers and during the college years so we’ve forked out tuition, room and board, plus transportation for the winter holiday and summer break and books during freshman year. The budget can vary after freshman year depending on whether they are living on or off campus and I supposed if they get involved in a fraternity or sorority. For us the budget freshman year was different than sophomore year although junior and senior year seemed fairly constant with the exception of the inevitable tuition increase. For us, freshman year was always the “largest” budget before the kids learn where to borrow or purchase cheap books, get off the big meal plan etc. etc.</p>
<p>A good analogy would be if one were to have multiple job offers and chose one offer because the total package was higher. After turning down all other offers, this one company said, “Oops, our HR made a mistake, your pay is really $10K less.” One could hire a lawyer to sue the company for damage, yada yada, but what would be the outcome if he/she should win the case? The company could decide not to give the employee any raise for few years, and maybe even treat the employee poorly. </p>
<p>I do agree with the honey tactic, to get the school to feel bad about the situation and try to come up with some sort of compromise. If I were the FA officer (or a senior person at the school), I would offer OP something for the mistake. Both of my kids didn’t like their first dorm assignment. I called housing so often, head of housing knew me by name and she remembered me the second time around when I called for D2. I was able to get my kids new room assignments before they showed up on campus, even though the rule was they could only change rooms during orientation week. I also don’t believe if the school should decide to honor their offer for OP that they would necessary need to do it for other students.</p>