<p>We have a rising senior son and have been visiting schools etc in preparation for next year. In looking at financial safeties, we are trying to get a handle on how some schools treat the tuition benefit we receive as university employees. Our school pays a percentage of its own tuition towards tuition at the school our children attend. This is great for public universities, as this benefit covers full tuition at our flagship and close to all of the OOS tuition for other publics we might consider. However, when the tuition elsewhere exceeds the tuition benefit we receive -- namely any privates -- that is where it gets complicated. </p>
<p>Until our son hit high school, we assumed that the tuition benefit was essentially money in our back pocket to use for college. As we got to know families with older students who were already deep into the college process, we began to hear that actually, it is not like "hidden money" we use to meet our EFC. We now understand that the tuition benefit is paid from our employer to our son's school and that it is the school where he enrolls which determines how the benefit is applied to our bill. Our university tells us that most schools -- not surprisingly -- use the tuition benefit as part of their financial aid package to us. For instance, assume our EFC is $25k and the college would be offering a $25k financial aid package. The tuition benefit would be used as part of the college's package, say, reducing its grant money to us; we would not be able to use it to meet our EFC which remainds unchanged at $25k.</p>
<p>We have been searching through college websites looking for policies about how this might be handled on a case-by-case basis but not finding anything. Does anyone have specific experience with particular schools about how they have handled university tuition benefits?</p>
<p>Here is my understanding. If your child receives a tuition benefit…it would REDUCE your financial need by that amount. In other words, your need based aid would consider that tuition money received as meeting some of your need…which it would be doing.</p>
<p>We have a number of friends who have participated in various college tuition funding things of this sort (tuition exchange, or college paying up to a certain amount to other schools). The key was targeting schools where this would give the most “bang for the buck”…and to adhere strictly to the DEADLINES…which for tuition exchange are on the early side.</p>
<p>Our friends felt this benefit was outstanding. In a couple of cases, the families ONLY looked at schools were this benefit would be accepted. They paid only room/board costs…a great deal.</p>
<p>We have a rising junior and are eligible for the Tuition Exchange (tuitionexchange.org). I’m driving my daughter insane with “the list”. I’ve gone through the entire list looking for schools where she is a strong candidate, or only a slight reach (she’s a solid B student right now, but on an upward trend, in a school with a 6 point grading scale). The school must also have an excellent record for awarding exchanges, and of course have her intended major. I’ve narrowed it down to 7 schools in a wide geographic area and with quite different “styles”. She’s looking at the websites for those schools, and we’ll visit those she’s interested in during the next year. She’ll apply early action (not binding) to her top 3 or 4 choices. If she finds other schools she wants to visit from “the list” that’s great too, but the whole list of 500 possibilities was overwhelming for her to narrow down on her own. We’ve visited one school so far, and it was quite motivational for her. In the end, I’m hoping we can whittle $40-50k annual tuition/board down to $15k or less , since the tuition exchange amount is set at $30,500 (or tuition, whichever is less). Our state schools would run about $17k. Don’t know if this helps, but that’s our strategy.</p>
<p>Yes, if your tution is lowered due to the Tuition exchange or anything, for that matter, your financial need is reduced and your award is accordingly reduced . The reason financial aid is given is due to need. Now if your student should get merit awards or scholarships, that’s a whole other story. Since those are not need driven, they ordinarily are not reduced.</p>