<p>I'm pretty sure there was another thread about this, but it was more about seeking opinions about enrolling. I recently received info about the plan for S's school. What's interesting is how different it is from the plan offered through D's school, which we're already familiar with. (Both plan are administered by AWG Dewar.)</p>
<p>So, for D, the cost is $179.00 for the full year, and it provides 100% return of tuition & fees. For S, however, the cost is $340.00 for the year and it only provides a return of 75% of tuition & fees. I'm not that familiar with the insurance industry, so I'm hoping some of my CC buddies can enlighten me about the differences in costs/coverage.</p>
<p>READ THE POLICY! All insurance is governed strictly by the terms of the policy. For us, we have never purchased insurance when our kids were in private school & we made tuition payments & now that they’re in college. </p>
<p>We read the terms & for our kids’ HS & college, it requires you to withdraw from ALL classes–to date that has never happened, even tho both suffer from significant chronic health issues. We have chosen not to apply, knowing that we could end up paying for them even if they have to totally leave school due to health (or other) issues. I have not yet met anyone who has received any financial benefit from these policies (other than insurer).</p>
<p>Some schools do require purchase of these policies, especially if there is a payment plan offered to allow tuition to be spread out instead of paid at the beginning in a lump sum. Basically, it protects the school (& family) so that if your kid leaves for whatever reason, they can still collect all the funds due & owing. Read the fine print to determine whether you think you will be able to use the policy & follow the terms before paying any $.</p>
<p>Our kids’ premiums are based on the # of credits you take. For our D, the premium was $69+/semester; we are having it cancelled because of the reasons set forth above. I believe (but don’t know for sure) that they set the premiums based on their experience with the particular school–the # of students who purchase & the # who make claims, etc. At least, that’s how premiums are usually set.</p>
<p>another consideration is what the school’s refund policy is … our oldest school has a pretty liberal refund policy … lot’s back if they drop early in the semester and a partial refund if they drop late. We have 3 kids so we compared the cost of 24 semesters of insurance versus the risk … given the refund policy of my Daughter’s school we would need TWO kids to drop during a term to make the insurance cost effectice … the odds of two drops are very-very low so we decided to not get the insurance. We are fortunate that we can “self-insure” against the highly unlikely event of lots of drops … but that is the way we are going after this problem (lowest expected cost). If you’re trying to minimize the odds of wasted tuition that go for the insurance (even though it raises your expected cost) … however that is basically true for all insurance; that is the whole point of insurance … consumer pays a premium over the expected outcome to avoid the bad outcome … tuition insurance is no different.</p>
<p>Sorry, guess I wasn’t clear enough in the OP. I’m not looking for opinions on whether to buy the Tuition Refund Plan or not. I’m just interested in knowing why the cost varies so much between schools.</p>
<p>Funny this should come up today - got a call from my sister in law asking if she should sign up for this plan for her DD who will be a freshman in the fall. Thanks to this thread, I suggested that she needed to look into what the refund policy was at her DD school and also read the policy to see when and if it paid off. Anything else to research?</p>