<p>Does anyone out there do this? We just got the brochure in the mail and I realize it is yet another way to collect some $$$, but does anyone think it is worth it? It reimburses tuition/room/board up to 85% in case of illness/injury withdrawl. Your thoughts please.</p>
<p>I like to think of insurance as something that assumes a financial risk that I can’t assume on my own.</p>
<p>Health insurance is an example because I can’t afford to pay for cancer treatment or organ transplants out of pocket should I need one. Might be $200k in medical bills. Premature kids can run into the millions. I can’t assume that risk.</p>
<p>Auto insurance is important as well because a car crash can cause huge hospital bills. I don’t insure my own vehicle because I can easily buy a replacement should the need arise. It’s easy to cause $100,000 in injuries to another person in an auto accident.</p>
<p>Tuition insurance? Well, the financial risk is 85% of one semesters tuition + room and board. Most state colleges that’s about $5,000 to $10,000. I could pay that cost so I’d pass on the insurance.</p>
<p>I also pass on personal property insurance (for studnets), wedding insurance, trip cancellation insurance for vacations, renters insurance, extended warranties, etc.</p>
<p>We got tuition insurance last year, I am glad I read this to remind me to renew. We had never heard of it, but when I got really sick and had to withdraw from my classes March of sophomore year and lost all that money we realized it was something we had to look into. That isn’t a risk we can afford to take again. I was a generally healthy person up til then, but that changed very quickly.</p>
<p>This topic comes up every couple of years on CC. The best advice I can recall from prior threads is “Read the Fine Print Carefully and Thoroughly!” Tuition Insurance is cheap … which means there are very few claims. But for some students it makes sense to buy it.</p>
<p>…Deflation…</p>
<p>I am a big believer in tuition insurance. Older daughter got sick and had to withdraw, and we lost most of the money, from a full pay, expensive west coast private university. </p>
<p>For a few hundred dollars, I will buy it every year for both kids!</p>
<p>A neighbor’s son was in a car accident, and had to withdraw. Daughter’s roomie’s father passed away, and she was distraught, and had to withdraw. You hear lots of these stories all the time. You never know what will happen, or when. To me, a few hundred dollars a year is worth it to protect the huge investment we are making with college tuition payments!!</p>
<p>But, yes, of course, always read the fine print! Both of my kids schools use Dewars Insurance, and they are very nice and it all seems very straight forward. Of course, I have not made a claim yet! You can look them up online, and see if your school uses them. Or call the Student Accounts Dept at your school, and see who they use.</p>
<p>I also got a personal property policy added to my homeowner’s insurance, covering my daughters’ laptops and digital cameras - for $38 year! </p>
<p>guess I like insurance!</p>
<p>but, I do NOT do the extra car rental insurance, trip insurance (actually do for the one daughter sometimes, as she is often sick!) or most of the other types of insurances that are offered.</p>
<p>Until now, tuition insurance was only available on a school-specific basis through one of two vendors - the previously referenced Dewar or a company called Niagara. Effective immediately, however, tuition insurance is available from GradGuard, a service of Next Generation Insurance. The insurance provides coverage levels from $5,000 to $50,000 and includes College Parents of America membership. College Parents of America research shows that students and parents face real risk each semester, as strict school refund policies prevent a family from getting much, if any, money back after the 5th week of class in a given term.</p>
<p>^^^ First post from a newbie sounds suspiciously like an advertisement…</p>
<p>Newbie here, trying to understand and adjust to the site culture. I thought it added value to the discussion to clarify that tuition insurance was previously available only through certain schools, and not to the larger universe of college parents. So discussing its value was irrelevant unless your student attended a Dewar or Niagara client school. Now the product can be judged on its merits by Any College Parent USA.</p>
<p>Can someone here recommend some companies for tuition insurance?</p>
<p>I looked at the web sites and couldn’t figure out how bad things have to be before the insurance company will pay out. Broken dominant arm? Broken leg? Two broken limbs? Hospitalized for a certain number of days? Prescribed bed rest for number of days? Flu for a week? And what if tough it out and then discover that you can’t catch up with your classes when you recover?</p>
<p>A $50,000 coverage level is misleading when it is for two terms. I don’t know of any school where you are on the hook for more than one term at a time for tuition and meals. Rooms are dicier (at least at my daughter’s school) because the contract is for the full academic year. I would want to know whether the insurance company will cover the second semester’s room charge DD has to withdraw first semester. And do they prorate reimbursement for room and meal charges?</p>
<p>I wonder if the insurance companies will tell how many claims they’ve had and how many they’ve paid. And will schools tell how many students withdraw for medical reasons.</p>
<p>Insurance is sometimes as much a way to make us feel less bad about a loss as it is an economic safety net. If my daughter stays healthy, I will never see the $25,000 I spent for her tuition, room and board for the semester. If she gets sick, not only will I not see it again but she won’t get the advantage of it. That makes me feel bad. I would also fee bad when it comes time for her to make up the semester and I write a check for something I feel like I already paid for. If insurance reimburses what I paid, I don’t feel as bad about the loss and have the money for the make-up term. Realistically, I could pay for the make-up term with just a little more financial discomfort than paying the first time around-- paying again just extends the discomfort.<br>
(How does withdrawing for illness or injury affect future financial aid eligibility?)</p>
<p>So, I’m not buying the insurance to cover the risk of feeling bad. Maybe I would if the cost was only $100/semester.</p>
<p>The plan from GradGuard reimburses for any unrecovered “loss” due to a medical withdrawal. It’s not up to the insurance company to decide what the reason is for a medical withdrawal. If the school approves the withdrawal as one for “medical reasons,” then the coverage kicks in and the coverage extends to any expenditure included in “cost of attendance.” So, as pointed out, the tuition loss would only be for one semester, but room and board commitments, student fees and other expenditures could be connected to a longer timeframe. At least that is how I read the policy.</p>
<p>We did not buy tuition insurance - sure enough D got sick and had to withdraw for the semester. We didn’t get a refund – but the school applied our payment to the following semester so we weren’t out any money. Check if that is a possibility at your child’s school.</p>
<p>Does tuition insurance apply if you’re a half time student?</p>
<p>You would need to call the insurance Company to find out</p>