<p>My D is auditing ballet (she’s never taken or shown any interest prior) and the U wants to charge an additional $1360 (ontop of over $20K in “regular” semester tuition) because that makes her “over” the 18 units included in her tuition, even tho it’s only audit. Any thoughts about this? I’m thinking she might just want to drop it because I’m not sure how interested in it she really is. Appreciate any input. At our local flagship U, they never charge for audits.</p>
<p>I sent her an e-mail so we can confer further about this. Just got an email from their billing office last night which alerted me to this new charge.</p>
<p>How do you audit ballet? When you audit a lecture class you sit in on the lectures, take in the information without doing any of the writing assignments. But ballet? Does she do the barre/floor work? Or only sit and watch? </p>
<p>Either way, I think taking ballet at a near-by studio not affiliated with the school would be a cheaper and more effective option.</p>
<p>They now say she can’t drop it as it has been more than 3 weeks into the semester & even if she drops it, she will still have to pay! I have left a message with the VP who is the only one with authority to do anything about this. I am incensed, having paid for 1 kid for 3 years there & another for 2.5 years there. Many of the terms, they were well under the 18 credits & sometimes D was even only at 12 credits! This is really outrageous to me!</p>
<p>This was a policy at my college even back in the day. I don’t see anything wrong with it. I imagine it prevents many students from auditing a class before they take it for credit.</p>
<p>In any case, perhaps you should check the website to see if this info is posted. I bet it is.</p>
<p>Your daughter needs to own some of the responsibility for this – students are advised what an overload is, and the fees probably showed up in her bursar’s bill before now. I understand your anger at the school, but many, many schools have a maximum on the number of units you can take before added fees come in.</p>
<p>katliamom - I work at a university and can take 1 free class per semester, if I wish. I have audited PE classes. I’m taking it for the exercise, but know I might miss some classes because of work/conferences etc. At our institution, if you miss a PE class more than 3 times it impacts your grade (automatic fail). Also, that way I don’t have to take written tests.</p>
<p>We also charge students regular tuition for auditing classes. However, community members 65 years and older can audit classes (if space is available) for free.</p>
<p>HImom, when did your daughter register for the class - was it later than the start of classes? Also, when you speak to the VP, be polite - I know at our school it goes a lot farther than the parents/students who get nasty!</p>
<p>D just registered for it. I am just sad that after the literally hundreds of thousands of dollars we’ve already spent at USC, they’re nickeling & diming us over this. It sure makes me disinclined to donate ANY money to them at any point and leaves a very bad taste. Yes, I will be polite but am really disappointed. </p>
<p>I do need to speak with D and am disappointed in her for not recognizing this & talking with us about it before she chose to take this course. S was much more cognisant about costs (but then he always cashed his paychecks, unlike D). Oh well, we will work this out.</p>
<p>This is pretty standard practice at Universities. In addition to all the information noted above, our classes are capped at a certain size due to fire code requirement (no more than X people in a room at a given time). Audit students count against this number, so even if they are not students one has to grade, they do displace someone else. Ergo, they pay.</p>
<p>Further, the faculty member still answers questions and mentors an audit student, so the faculty member should get some credit for having had a student in the class. The number of students has to be set as of a given date. It sounds like 3 weeks is true for your d’s school. That is more generous than ours. We give you 8 days, then you pay regardless.</p>
<p>As for fighting with the VP, good luck with that. Your number of credit hours is clear when you sign up for classes. If you can’t figure out your tuition and what is covered or not, good luck being an adult and engaging in contracts. Because when you hit that registration button, all the fine print you just agreed to (paying for an audit, having X days until you can drop for free, what your scholarship covers) is a contract. </p>
<p>Your D is an adult. She engaged in a contract.</p>
<p>I have no issue with a uni charging for being over units and charging for audits; I do disagree with telling you she cannot drop it.</p>
<p>I don’t care if the kids are adults, I don’t care about FERPA/HIPAA/etc. Parents are paying for college and they need the opportunity to discover and address situations like this.</p>
<p>I can see the computer doing this, but some responsible adult needs to recognise your authority in successfully allowing your DD to drop the class. I would also tell my kid she would be paying for that if she chose to do it ;)</p>
<p>Thanks, Somemom, will see if I can speak to a reasonable adult with any authority. Am very disappointed about this as I had previously been mostly happy with their U.</p>
<p>I don’t understand what makes this an audited class - is it that she won’t receive credit for it, or is she also not going to take the class, but just watch it instead? That scenario makes no sense, but neither does paying $1360 for a semester of what I presume are beginner-level ballet classes (since you say your d has no prior experience). That’s hugely expensive even if she is a full participant in 3 beginner-level classes per week. At an excellent private dance studio in our area, my d got 14 hours of weekly advanced instruction per 20-week semester for about $1,000. </p>
<p>I understand that colleges have to make ends meet, but I don’t see how HImom’s d can be getting what she’s paying for. Hope you’ll post this in the USC forum too, HImom, so that current students can be forewarned.</p>
<p>Himom- when dealing with the UCs and wanting something from them, something which seems obviously simple to me, but which does not fit their rubric, I have had the best luck getting the results I want by:
A} being very nice
B} phrasing it so that the employee bonds with me in blaming the computer limitations
C} acting like I assume they WANT to help me if they can only find a way
D} knowing that I live myself outside the box, and they live entirely inside the box; it is up to me to show them several ways they can make my outside the comfort zone wish happen within their box. I offer several suggestions as to how they can justify a yes to my request without setting an uncomfortable precedent</p>
<p>I work with insurance companies all day so am pretty good at this ;)</p>
<p>There is really no FERPA or anything else involved here. The info is clearly stated on the Tuiton and Fees page. And there is no UC involved here, either.</p>
<p>starbright, why not? Aren’t there schools that offer beginner piano, photography, music apprecition, or other art classes (probably can meet a requirement in the arts)? How about the new courses in social media (ie: learning about twitter and FB)? Don’t want to hijack the thread, but I don’t know why ballet wouldn’t qualify for credit if the other examples that I listed to qualify for credit.</p>
<p>Thanks for the tips. To date, I have a pretty good record of getting people to help me find ways that work for me and them. Have had a pretty good on-going relationship with my medical insurer and gotten them to pay nearly all of our unusual medical bills. I have also worked with USC before on other issues and am very hopeful that we can work this out.</p>
<p>I also have not idea what auditting Ballet is --I guess it’s not getting a grade. I’m very surprised she’s even taking it because she has never before shown ANY interest in it beyond watching it with her HS friends via “So You Think You can Dance?” who all took ballet for many, many years.</p>
Am very disappointed about this as I had previously been mostly happy with their U.</p>