<p>
jmmom-
Unfortunately I can’t guess what the school’s intent was. Some schools offer full everything (tuition, fees, room, board) plus a laptop, annual stipend and travel $$ (my s was offered 2 of these types of scholarships, but they were not schools he wanted to attend). I cannot guess what the school “intended” to give the OP’s son, I guess we’ll have to wait for more information.</p>
<p>Well, if the school’s own words were “tuition” and not even a specific dollar amount, then we CAN guess what their intent was - that it was an offer for tuition and nothing more. And S’s “cost” for that tuition was ZERO no matter how you look at it.</p>
<p>boy, that jym is right again. I wasn’t in the boardroom discussing what students get what scholarship. I don’t know why they offered what they did. I could speculate, sure, but thats not relevant. What I do know is what they actually offered. What they offered tempted my son to accept. The bursar is charging more than they are supposed to due to his reciprocal agreement.
It is confusing, to be sure, thats why I’m seeking other opinions.
Our thinking is like 1sokker has offered that it was intended to encourage student to attend.</p>
<p>I have to assume school knows its own tuition cost.</p>
<p>I would also assume that students know what they are liable for when they sign the contract- or they should be-</p>
<p>I don’t think people are being harsh- but speaking only for myself- when making a little over national average wage- in a high expense area- learning that our EFC would be 1/4 of before tax income- not allowing for higher than usual expenses ( not credit cards BTW)- it was a shock, although we dealt with it the best we can and at this point it is water under the bridge</p>
<p>So coming from that perspective, it is mind boggling when someone is not happy with what appears to be a better than average deal.</p>
<pre><code>Some scholarships it is true offer money for room and board.
</code></pre>
<p>Generally these are for very low income minority students- through the Gates foundation or similar. EFC would be zero or otherwise qualify for Pell.
Sometimes these students, particularly with wealthy schools are even given vouchers to visit before admittance.
Money receive to cover room & board is deemed to be taxable. I’ve noticed that some schools, while reducing tuition, or " covering tuition with a * scholarship*" then are raising the cost of room and board at the same time. 
Big help. not.
The added little thing is that tax vouchers/ credits/ what have you , I believe cover “tuition” not " room and board", so even if you are paying the same- you have less to take off on taxes.</p>
<p>I know students who were given tuition grants to attend for freshman, maybe even sophomore years. Some schools are notorious for offering generous packages the first year but little subsequent years.
On CC and in IRL, I have known students whose package dropped so much they had to transfer out.</p>
<p>Make sure you understand everything you sign & that your parents/student do as well.
Ask about costs till graduation, not just the first year.</p>
<p>toky4</p>
<p>he qualified for in state tuition due to reciprocal agreement, beginning from day 1. It was the admin officer that explained that to us. </p>
<p>He later applied, and sought scholarships. He received the offer of 8 sem. “out of state tuition” scholarship, accepted, and is attending the school.
And yes, kty4, he knew what he was liable for. As a reciprocal student, liable for $7500 per sem tuition(re-using my example numbers) then all other expenses were out of pocket. Though he’s liable for the $7500, Bursars office has “charged” him 10k. Thereby using up all son was offered. Oos tuition valued at 10k for this example.</p>
<p>I have no dog in this fight-- I just think people are being incredibly harsh here. I agree that when people flippantly say they are going to contact their attorney it may leave a bad taste in one’s mouth, but I took it as just that, a flip comment, as giving extreme examples (e.g. from “forget about it” to “call the attorney”). As you all know, the bursars office (where the money goes in) and the fin aid office (where the awards are given) are different offices, and I have personally experienced that the right hand often does not know what the left hand is doing between scholarship awards and payment offices. I was told, one semester, that I had to “overnight” my s’s tuition payment to avoid both having my s’s registration access “frozen” and avoid an assessed late fee b/c they didn’t have the outside scholarship award check in yet (turns out they did- it was in the scholarship office and hadn’t made it to the bursars office to be posted to his acct!)- so I have to spend about $25 or so to overnight the check to the Bursars office, only to find the scholarship payment posted like a day later. And they school just kept it as a credit towards the next sememter. </p>
<p>All in all, while I would certainly have written the original post differently (and I suspect the OP wishes he/she did too!) I am not seeing that the OP is trying to make a profit off this. I think the OP is just trying to get to the bottom of what the correct scholarship was. If it was “tuition” than it doesnt matter if it was in or out of state-- it was just for generic “tuition”. In this case, it would be a labelling error and the OP should probably give the $2500 back. If, hovever, it was a dollar amt equivalent to OOS tuition (meaning that the value could increase each yr with any tuition increases) then that makes a difference, and the accounting should be straightened out. JMO</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is the part you still don’t seem to understand. </p>
<p>(1) The reason that in-state public institutions offer a lower tuition rate for their in-state students, is simply because their parents pay taxes to support the institution. So, the in-state students seem to get a break-- but really-- their parents have been paying taxes for years, so indirectly, the student is paying the same as his out-of-state counterpart.</p>
<p>(2) You’ve already stated this is a reciprocal agreement between states. Sure, he was offered a scholarship that covers out-of-state tuition, but that simply means that they are picking up the tab for his education (the tuition part). It still costs the same to educate him. They are considering him in-state for the purposes of the scholarship. YOU, as his parent, have not been paying taxes in this particular state where the school is located; consequently your taxes don’t support the school. So the taxpayers of that state are picking up the difference for your son. Presumably, since this is reciprocal, your own state would do the same thing for a student not from your state.</p>
<p>The point is, the cost to educate him is still the same. It’s not cheaper for him, and it’s not cheaper for an in-state student, really. It’s just that their parents have been paying taxes all along, so it seems like it is.</p>
<p>They’re giving him a scholarship worth out-of-state tuition, and the state is essentially paying for that. They are not going to pay you twice. </p>
<p>This seems pretty clear to me.</p>
<p>“To use simple numbers for easy explanation, they offered oos tuition valued at 10k per sem, student accepted. students’ cost of tuition is 7.5k due to reciprocal agreement. But, Bursars office charging student 10k each semester, using up all of scholarship money offered to student. Imo bursars office made honest mistake by charging son oos tuition, not that they deliberately overcharged hiom just to keep all money for themself. I just don’t think bursars office is entitled to keep more than accurate tuition cost, that just doesn’t seem to be what scholarship committee offered son.”</p>
<p>I wouldn’t spend the money they sent you. This is a clerical error auditors will likely find at some point and you will be expected to return their money to them. </p>
<p>You were offered oos tuition valued at 10k per semester. You were charged oos tuition at 10k each semester. Then someone realized the reciprocal agreement allows you to be charged instate tuition at 7.5k. When the 2.5k remained on the books, some clerk sent you a check so the books would balance. Instead, the school should have gone back and corrected their books to reflect a residency and a tuition scholarship amount that match. You can ask for the difference, though once your request goes up the food chain I suspect someone will fix the problem. Of course you risk their fix concludng that you were never entitled to a scholarship because they are reserved for oos students and you should begin paying full tuition immediately if you choose to finish your degree at that school. </p>
<p>Sure, the extra money would be handy to defray the cost of room and board but the scholarship was for tuition, not room and board, and if you aren’t paying tuition, you should return the check and explain their error to them.</p>
<p>Somehow it just seems different to me offering “oos tuition” compared to just saying tuition, or in-state tuition, or giving a dollar figure. Had their scholarship offer merely said “tuition paid” we would have interpreted that very differently than oos.
I will remind dntw8 that it was their explanation to me that brought this to light. They explained to me that son was mistakenly charged oos rate and should have been in state, thats why they sent him refund check for the difference.</p>
<p>this
is probably the crux of it. I think dontw8up has hit the nail on the head.</p>
<p>I agree that they should have just said " scholarship for tuition".</p>
<p>But I only hope that the people who write those things up aren’t teaching in the English dept.</p>
<p>My daughter is also looking at schools that offer instate tuition plus a little, and they all address it differently.</p>
<p>When S got extra money (Tuition payment) from his school. I was thoroughly confused. I emailed them and asked them Why. I went into greater detail in that we didn’t ask or need the extra money and S certainly did not need work-study. It did take 3 months on their part in giving us a definite answer in that they said to keep the credit and they will rescind the work-study (government money & rules). They never did give a reason other than they made the new awards in writing, and had disbursed the money. </p>
<p>This extra money that S had gotten is being paid back to them as yearly donation, small token amounts now until he gets out of school and making a bit more money. </p>
<p>I imagine you can be a little more coy in your inquiry.</p>
<p>to the OP</p>
<p>you want $$s back for what, exactly…you didn’t pay anything…and you agreed to the room and board I would assume, which is generaly the same regardless of OOS or Instate…so please explain why you think you “deserve” actual cash in hand…</p>
<p>Try thinking of it this way: it is not S, but rather his “school account” that is being charged with all his college costs, and payments to that account can come from a number of different sources - scholarships from the school, outside scholarships, loans, grants, and S/parent. </p>
<p>The Bursar’s job is only to keep track of all these different payments to the account (and they have lot of very different financial aid arrangements to keep track of); they were never charging your S personally for any tuition, only his account. Likewise, your S was never personally liable for any tuition since it was being paid into his account by the scholarship (ie he is not legally responsible for paying it as long as the scholarship is in place).</p>
<p>Could you tell us what school, then in a matter of minutes most of us could go online and figure out what’s what… rather than play this guessing game?</p>
<p>We have decided to send school a letter and photocopy of scholarship offer, asking about the refund. We’re going to say basically, that if he was entitled to refund this semester due to Bursars accidental overcharge, then why not the previous ones?
We expect their answer will be that refund is in error and to return it.</p>
<p>I’m curious now. I hope you’ll update when you find out what the deal is.</p>
<p>I’m sorry I wasn’t clearer earlier, CGM. Son was offered oos scholarship(tuition only), though school knew son qualified for in-state. It is our belief that school made that offer to encourage student to attend. He did. We feel that since he should have been charged in state rate, but was actually charged oos, he should be entitled to the difference between the corrected charge and what he was promised. We feel the Bursars office overcharge of tuition is unfair because we feel they should charge actual tuition cost and then give to son the difference as scholarship committee said they’d give him.</p>
<p>.
Going to work now.</p>
<p>I’d have to say-
if I ( for example supposing this is Ohio State University, who apparently gives lots of " tuition waivers"), was an Ohio resident and taxpayer- and realized that the state university was not only waiving tuition for out of state residents, but giving them the difference between instate and out of state tuition, P’Oed would not begin to cover my response.</p>
<p>you are opening a can of worms, since you haven’t actually paid anything, and they sent you most likely an undeserved check, which you accepted, and now you are asking for cash?</p>
<p>does you son like the school? it is amazing that someone can be so unhappy for getting free tuition and in fact wants cash to go there</p>
<p>how sad indeed, and again, if I saw that coming across my desk, I would almost recind the scholarship from this day forward as the student doesn’t qualify for it and never did</p>