<p>First of all, I want to thank all of those who politely expressed their opinion, whether agreeing with me, seeking more info, or disagreeing with me. That is, exactly why I am posting here, to garner more opinions, to better help me to decide what to do.
To clarify a number of items for some: I typically check this forum once daily so I don’t post every few hours. We live in a section of our state that has a reciprocal agreement with the oos school he chose. That is an agreement our state and the school have agreed to in order to draw more students from our area to that school. Not only did every mailing we sent them come from our real home address, but also student had to fill out his app for school, and used our real adress, plus, it was admissions counselor knowing this all along, that explained the reciprocal agreement to us. There is no deception on where we live. Naturally, the scholarship offer came long after his initial app. Why did error just now come to light? Because school sent us a surprise refund this semester of the difference of the oos tuition he was promised compared to the actual in state tuition he should have been charged. Not that it matters on the principle, but the difference is about $2.5k per sem. This was the first time they’ve had such an action, and that is what caught our attention. They explained the scholarship commitee had promised oos tuition, but that the Bursars office was entitled to only the in state portion, so the difference had to go somewhere.(Their explanation)
Yes, I’m a real person, I work a “regular” blue collar job and am landlord too.
I understand about greed, but I also understand contract offers. I’m not an attorney but have offered and accepted many contracts in my lifetime.
It was the school that offered the oos tuition to my son, fully knowing his address, and is it really so terribly wrong to ask them to deliver what they promised? Is it so different from a school that might give a scholarship to an outstanding athlete, then the school gets the benefits of not only that student, but also having that athlete on their team? Do I know why they offered what they did? No. Do I know why others schools offered what they did? No. I figure if the school saw a benefit in offering my son more than his actual cost of tuition(and required certain academic conditions of him), well then am I a bad person for accepting it? Gee, if I have a house for sale for 75k and a guy offers 90k, am I a bad guy to accept it? Or as some have posted, if a agree to that 90k, but the guy pays me 80.k should I seek the other unpaid portion or just be glad I got what I did? Some here seem to be saying what we’re getting is good enough, don’t seek the additional portion promised. What is my son delivered less that what he promised to do academically? Should we tell college-“too bad, but be glad for what you’re getting”? Is desiring all he was promised too greedy? It is not in dispute son has met all conditions placed on him. We didn’t trick them into making an offer. Are we to be faulted for accepting what they offered? They offered oos tuition, nothing toward room or board was mentioned. So far those costs have been oop. Finally, why I might consider “letting it slide” is because if the school agrees he should be paid more because of ther error, the school might be unfairly hard on him in retaliation- he is still a student there.</p>
<p>jym626: I’m sure someone will jump in to correct me, but I actually know of no public schools where the room & board, and fees, present separate costs for in-state and out-of-state students. Tuition will always be different, but not for anything else, to my knowledge.</p>
<p>I agree that it’s possible this was a partial tuition scholarship, but that doesn’t mesh with the comment that the son “was always in-state.”</p>
<p>I really think people are overreacting here. If the OP is misunderstanding the terms of the scholarship, then the school will <em>politely</em> explain the terms and tell the OP they are not entitled to any fee adjustment. If, perchance, someone did key it in incorrectly, and they were being overcharged, then they are perhaps due the adjustment. Wouldnt you want the same? While I agree, I think the OP could have worded the original question better and not have ilicited the tone of many of the responses seen here, I think it is reasonable to hope the OP will explain further. He/she just asked for opinions as to what to do-- didn’t ask for opinions about his/her moral character.</p>
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<p>This is almost hard to believe. If that’s true, then I can believe they made an error in doing so (in writing a refund check to you). The taxpayers of that state would be up in arms if they knew about this.</p>
<p>Would you mind naming the school?</p>
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<p>Yes. If you know they can’t afford it you are taking advantage of an idiot.</p>
<p>What? I know they can’t afford it? Where did that come from? Sometimes people do offer more than the asking price of a home. But, who does that, or why, or the housing bubble is really not my point in this thread.
I had hoped the house example would shine a light on my real life example to those who have posted here essentially saying to take what I got and call it a day, despite what was actually offered.</p>
<p>You have consistently raised in your posts the idea of a business of education. Let me ask you these two :
You are at the store- </p>
<p>You put the box of Wheaties on the cashiers desk. It scans $0.25. The harried cashier doesn’t catch it. Do you say anything?</p>
<p>You are at the store . You are lost in thought. Being distracted you give her $5.00 for a 50 cent item. She accepts it. You walk off and exit the store. Does the cashier need to say something? Or does she keep the cash?</p>
<p>you can’t just ask for opinions on “what to do” if you are kind of evasive in your question and then come up with this interesting explanation</p>
<p>To my way of thinking, they offered your son an education at their expense. Is he getting one? If so, they have fulfilled their obligation.</p>
<p>And BTW , if I have a client offer me $1000.00 for something I routinely do for $250.00 - I tell them. I’m in a repeat business situation. A bad rep lasts forever and I can’t afford that. It’s bad business.</p>
<p>younghoss: I’m still confused. Your son is in-state, or out-of-state for this particular school. Inititally, you said he was always in-state. If so, why was he offered an out-of-state scholarship?</p>
<p>Regardless, I find it very hard to believe that a school that has a reciprocal agreement with another state, would send you a refund check (for tuition you presumably never paid in the first place). If that’s really true, they made a mistake, and you need to alert them and return the check.</p>
<p>Maybe I’m still not getting it. ??</p>
<p>Tough questions, curm, and very relevant. I think the principle is clear in both. #1 yes, I should say something if I see an error, even if it is in my favor. #2 Yes, she should return it if she sees an error, even though theoretically the error helps her. Clearly by your good examples a person needs to rectify an error to be doing the right thing. Do we all do that, all the time? Well, I can’t speak for all, but I try to, thought I wouldn’t always claim to do so.
This sheds light on my school example, too. Now that the school sees they offered oos tuition $ to a student that is only required to pay in state, do they refund the difference? That refund would go a long way toward his housing and other related costs that he’s borrowed for.</p>
<p>to janieb- he lives oos, but is entitled to pay only in-state tuition at that school because of a reciprocal agreement with our state and that school, set up to encourage students in our area to attend that school.
They offered my son 8 sem., of oos tuition.(their wording)</p>
<p>yh, if they offered my kid full OOS tuition I’d say it was “tuition” that they offered , not an amount of money. But if they offered her $20K, the amount equal to OOS tuition, I want her $20K. I’d have to see the exact wording of the offer.</p>
<p>Kill me now if you like but now that I understand the situation I think he is entitled to the difference and clearly the school does to as they gave him a refund check for the difference on the one occassion.
Does it make sense? Not to me. Is it the “right thing”? Not in my mind. But if the rules say that an oos scholarship was awarded and the school felt once that he was due the refund then the refund is due.
I don’t think I would go as far as court to obtain it though. I would accept the surprise refund and go forward from here, not go back and try to fight for previous years.</p>
<p>yh, it is still not clear to me but is the OOS reciprocity a “tuition waiver”? If so, then your argument is not as good to me because the tuition is still “there”. It’s just being “waived”. Again - a discussion board means we can “discuss” it . But we are not capable of advising or interpreting documents and policies we haven’t seen. (I bet the school is rewriting this provision as we speak;)).</p>
<p>Very confusing. But, maybe the school offered out of state tuition as a way of giving out a larger scholarship this way (larger than just tuition) because of some arcane bureaucratic reasons (maybe for some reason, easier to do it this way, or it is some sort of loophole in the system). Maybe they intended for the kid to be able to use the difference toward housing, but the bookkeepers screwed up initially. The fact that they gave a refund kind of makes you think that maybe they did – unless that was mistake. Which action was a mistake – not giving the refund the whole time, or giving a refund a couple of years down the line? If I was Young Hoss I would want to find out. The trick is to ask the right people the right questions in trying to figure out what the original intent was. Maybe it won’t be possible to recover money after this amount of time has passed, but enquiring minds want to know.</p>
<p>Curm, I can uderstand your $1000 for $250 service comparison. As a landlord, I sometimes take less rent than the maximum of the going price in order to keep a particularly good tenant. In other words, I am willing in that example, to take less each month in hopes of making more over the long term. Similarly, is it so ridiculous that the school was willing to pay more to attract this student, because they see some long term benefit ahead?
That is why I welcome opiniond here, even those that disagree with me.
But to all, I ask you to base opinions on the assumption that son has not misrepresented his address at any time. We have not nisrepresented, and opinions based on misrepresentation would not help me.</p>
<p>I agree with Curm, if their “intent” was to give you a scholarship based on OOS tuition, and not a specific flat rate, and then it turns out the rate they used was just incorrect at the time, I think they are entitled to adjust their offer based on the correct rate if their mistake was truly inadvertent. The fact that it took so long for them to catch this is amazing but perhaps not too surprising in a large institution where different individuals and departments have different responsibilities. Also, did you clearly know that they were giving you a scholarship based on OOS, when it should have been instate at the time or did you also not catch that mistake?</p>
<p>Kinda like when the waitress gives you back a $10 when it should have been a $5…</p>
<p>I’d take the refund I got and run… Pull in their lawyers and next thing you know, they will change their tune and determine that you should not have received that refund after all and demand that you return it as well (nothing personal, Curm 
). It sounds to me like acctg just didn’t know where to apply it on their books and it was just easiest to give a refund this year so their books are right than to go back and correct all their numbers from 2 yrs ago.</p>
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<p>Thanks for the explanation. So, if I understand correctly, you have never written a tuition check for your son? He was awarded a full tuition scholarship as an out-of-state student, but because of this reciprocal agreement, he is considered in-state (for tuition purposes). </p>
<p>So, again, why do you believe you are owed this money? If the school really did send you a refund check, that was clearly a goof on their part. You should notify them, and return the check. It’s the legal, moral, and right thing to do.</p>
<p>Finally, I’ve mentioned this a few times, but I’ll say it one more time. When public universities offer out-of-state students scholarships, and they then consider them in-state, for tuition purposes only, the University (or the private foundation/endowment) does save money. However, someone else still has to pick up that very real cost of educating your son. Most always, the burden of picking up that cost rests with the taxpayers of that state. </p>
<p>I live in a state where the legislation passed a bill a few years ago, where any out-of-state student who was awarded a merit or athletic scholarship, would be considered in-state for tuition purposes. Because of a loophole in the way the legislation was written, all out-of-state scholarship awards are now essentially full-freight awards. This has already cost (and will cost) the taxpayers of this state millions and millions of dollars. The taxpayers are still complaining about it, and some legislators are working to get this bill amended or repealed. If the taxpayers in the state where your school is located knew that a refund check was sent (clearly, a mistake on their part), and you were demanding even more-- well, I think they might just stone you in the town square, or something worse. </p>
<p>I’m at a loss. Wow.</p>