I will shed more light (lesson learned from my son) on my son’s experience. We had a family budget going in. My son was recruited by a few hockey coaches. Visited and skated with a couple of teams. Got multiple acceptances and merit awards. He narrowed it down to 1 that he liked and fit our budget based on the original letter and cost breakdown they sent him for his F1 VISA. In May, we began to see inconsistencies in what he was offered and the school’s web site. So he emailed international admissions, financial aid etc… to get an official cost break down before he accepted. We noticed, for example, that the base tuition in the letter was $6K lower than what was on the school’s site for 2024-25. Secondly, one scholarship said up to $10K, when the scholarship he won was supposed to bring the out-of-state rate down to state rate (more than $10K).
Finally, the coach got involved. Get this. The original tuition they quoted was based on 12 credits. Good grief. He would need 5 years to graduate but, his awards were for 1 plus 3 renewable. Secondly, tuition rates were bumped up 8% since January. But, of course, the merit awards weren’t. And they couldn’t explain why they didn’t just quote him the state rate when that is what his grant was supposed to be for!
We haven’t determined if this was incompetence by the school or deliberately misleading. My son basically decided to accept an offer at a hometown school (put his money in the bank for grad school). This needless to say was such a disappointing experience. We felt so bad for the hockey coach who basically lost a player at the 11th hour. The sad part is the school has an enrollment issue over the years (4% declining) AND has struggled to get high end academic performers. He had similar dealings with other small schools where the admissions office did more harm to the school’s reputation than anything else.