Does anyone work at a college?

[Amethyst]

Does anyone here work at a college that offers reduced tuition for children of employees? I have some questions about how that works. 

[Laura Corin]

I do but in the UK.

[Bootsie]

I do.  You can PM me if you would like.

[regentrude]

I do, in the US.

[regentrude]

It's part of the employment benefits.  You can fill out an electronic form, bill for student is calculated accordingly. 

[Amethyst]

41 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

I do.  You can PM me if you would like.

Thanks. I PMd you. 

[YaelAldrich]

My DH does and we FINALLY have a kid taking advantage of it.  Full tuition remission.  That child is going away on a school sponsored but not officially school semester abroad so the Uni is covering I think 30% of that cost.  You can PM me

Edited May 27, 2022 by YaelAldrich
forgot a not

[Amethyst]

42 minutes ago, regentrude said:

It's part of the employment benefits.  You can fill out an electronic form, bill for student is calculated accordingly. 

So the student doesn’t have to pay full tuition up front and then reimbursed if they get a good enough grade?

[Amethyst]

3 minutes ago, YaelAldrich said:

My DH does and we FINALLY have a kid taking advantage of it.  Full tuition remission.  That child is going away on a school sponsored but officially school semester abroad so the Uni is covering I think 30% of that cost.  You can PM me

Wow. Nice! Would they pay 100% for a masters degree too, do you know?

[regentrude]

4 minutes ago, Amethyst said:

So the student doesn’t have to pay full tuition up front and then reimbursed if they get a good enough grade?

Not at my institution, and I haven't hear this from anywhere else either.
The tuition benefit is not conditional on student performance at all.

[regentrude]

Just be careful that tuition benefits may not include fees.

[Amethyst]

12 minutes ago, regentrude said:

Just be careful that tuition benefits may not include fees.

I’ll happily pay for fees (correction: dd will!) if tuition is paid fully!

[YaelAldrich]

18 minutes ago, Amethyst said:

Wow. Nice! Would they pay 100% for a masters degree too, do you know?

As far as I know.  I plan on going back for some more learnin' in a couple of years.

[YaelAldrich]

22 minutes ago, Amethyst said:

So the student doesn’t have to pay full tuition up front and then reimbursed if they get a good enough grade?

Never been the case at any of the universities he's been at so far (both public and private institutions).  You get no bill for tuition but you will for fees and room and board.

[Forget-Me-Not]

My husband does (for another month or so until he starts a new job). They offered a 50% tuition reduction for dependents, and a $5/credit hour for spouses. Unfortunately we never got to use it. My daughter did a dual credit class there during high school, but it was part of an early college program that was already heavily discounted, so the discount didn’t apply. 

[Granny_Weatherwax]

I did until a few years ago.

The small liberal arts college I worked for offered tuition remission only; room, board, fees, books, lab expenses were not included. Student had to qualify for admission to the school and retain a specific GPA and remain in good academic standing.

Full tuition benefits were only for the first undergraduate degree. No subsequent bachelor's or graduate degrees were eligible. (I was greatly disappointed as my DD wanted to go back to school for a second bachelors and was unable to take part in the tuition benefit.)

The nice thing was that the tuition benefit extended to schools within a consortium. If the student qualified for admission to any of the participating colleges (and there was room that year), the tuition benefit was applied. Again, it did not cover room and board or any fees.

The Human Resources department of the college or university the employee works for will have all of the information you need regarding who qualifies for the benefit and what it will cover.

And any outside scholarships earned and designated for tuition may reduce the tuition benefit and may not be applied for room and board or fees. It depends on the wording of the scholarship and whether or not the college or university allows for stacking of scholarships.

[Hilltopmom]

I’ve seen that (pay upfront but get paid back for grades of B or better) as employee benefits or for an employee taking classes (tuition reimbursement). 

[HSMWB]

My husband does. It is a small private college that participates in a tuition exchange as well.  So it is not only the college he works at (that our kids have no interest in attending) but the other ones that participate in the exchange as well. We are hoping to be able for our first child to participate next year.  I’m am not positive of all the hoops to jump thru, but I am sure there are some. 

[SHP]

I work at community college part time, I get 3 credit hours a semester, nothing for kids or spouse. 

My husband and I seriously discussed him taking a job at the university our college aged kid will be attending, but he would have had to take a $10k/year pay cut and the tuition remission was about that amount. Since there wasn't the savings and husband planned to return to his current job we decided that losing his seniority and vacation time wasn't worth it. 

[Farrar]

My mother paid for my sister's tuition with a tuition benefit. It was from a private university and would pay for full tuition for her or one immediate family member at any US school. It did not include room and board or fees. That type of benefit seems to have mostly gone belly up, but some longtime employees still have it. There were no strings with the one my mother had other than when it was used, it was used. It was a one time thing. I'm familiar with other tuition benefits and they all seem to be completely different. A set amount for any school, a percentage for any school, free everything but just for the institution involved, free tuition but only if you do certain things.

[Insertcreativenamehere]

When my kids were toddlers/preschoolers, my husband and I both worked at a private university where tuition benefits were provided for the employee and their dependents. It phased in fully over 5 years of employment and the maximum benefit was 95% off tuition. I ended up leaving to be a SAHM and he left to pursue more highly technical work in the business world. Salaries were significantly lower in academia than in the business world and that was a factor as well. Over the last decade or so, the university has had numerous layoffs so even if we had stayed, there was no guarantee that we would have been able to use the tuition benefit at all. Of course, now our rising senior is considering going to college there ...

[Garga]

My husband works at a community college. Depending on the level of your job, the employees get differing benefits for tuition reduction. At my husband’s level, his immediately family all has free tuition, but we pay fees/books. The tuition is paid by the college up front. I actually can’t remember if it’s based on grade or not as to whether you can keep the free tuition. My son gets A’s, so we haven’t had to think about it.

My sons will both start at the community college and then transfer out to a college that accepts all the credits.

[Ailaena]

I wasn’t complaining with 9 hours/yr at a state U, but some of y’all are getting dream amounts!

Minor details: we don’t have to be enrolled in a degree-seeking program, good for any level course, cannot register until the week before classes, fees not included.  

[Karen A]

Some (about 400) private colleges participate in a "Tuition Exchange" consortium of sorts. If your husband works at a member school, it might be a benefit. It seems that these schools have a certain number of spots and one's kid can apply for one of those spots. They are not guaranteed, and it seems to help if your kid is a good stats student in securing one, and many cast their net wide, hoping to get a TE spot. There's a website https://www.tuitionexchange.org/, and I also learned a lot about the process from the College Confidential chat boards about it. 

[katilac]

22 hours ago, Amethyst said:

I’ll happily pay for fees (correction: dd will!) if tuition is paid fully!

Well, check out the fees before you say that, lol. 

At some universities, fees are nearly equal to tuition. This is probably more likely at lower-cost schools, though. 

[Bootsie]

37 minutes ago, Karen A said:

Some (about 400) private colleges participate in a "Tuition Exchange" consortium of sorts. If your husband works at a member school, it might be a benefit. It seems that these schools have a certain number of spots and one's kid can apply for one of those spots. They are not guaranteed, and it seems to help if your kid is a good stats student in securing one, and many cast their net wide, hoping to get a TE spot. There's a website https://www.tuitionexchange.org/, and I also learned a lot about the process from the College Confidential chat boards about it. 

DH worked at a consortium school and DD received tuition exchange.  IME, it is much easier at some schools than at other schools.  DH's school would have a number of slots available, and those were awarded based on longevity at the university.  Then, the student had to be accepted at the school and be accepted as one of the school's tuition exchange slots.  DD would not have received the tuition exchange at one of the other schools she was accepted to (wasn't her first choice anyway, so didn't matter); she qualified for 50% tuition merit-based scholarship.  So, it appeared the only way that you got tuition exchange benefits at that school were if your grades and scores were high enough to qualify for 100% merit-based scholarship (or know someone--which isn't supposed to happen but it seems as if that is what was occurring).  We also couldn't have two children receiving tuition exchange at the same time.  So, you could have 4 children receive the benefit each for 16 years--but if you had 2 children in within four years, both could not receive it (although we found out that exceptions can be made--back to the if you know someone...)  DH keeps his benefit that dependents get free tuition at the school where he taught even after he retired, but participation in the tuition exchange consortium ended the day he retired.