overcharge for college tuition. Are you kidding me?

[Polish_Hammer]

I recently discovered that we were paying out of state tuition for the state school that my son attends. When i questioned the university about the mistake they told me since my son went to an out of state high school he was automatically assumed to be a non resident for the college submission. I was told it was very common that folks were wrongly listed as out of state despite the mailing address, tax forms, etc all showing residency.  A nice refund coming after jumping through many administrative hoops.  My question is if you know this is a problem why isn't it being corrected and how many students don't pick up on it as they just sign up for more loans.

[Jakejake]

Ugh, we had this happen after serving overseas in the military. Apparently even if you keep your state residency and keep voting absentee ballot, our state university likes to claim you are no longer a state resident. We had to call our senator to get it straightened out, we couldn't get the university to fix it without his help. Like you, I wondered how many vets got screwed over on that, and either didn't notice or were just worn down into submission.

[use2betrix]

How long had you been paying out of state tuition? The difference is usually substantial. Did you not research the cost?

[2lazy2retire]

As your son went to an out of state HS then it is not a huge shocker that this kind of mistake was made, the real outrage lies in the fact that it appears you were slow to notice the difference - in some cases the differences can be 10k/year in tuition, are you kidding me indeed.

[GuitarStv]

My question is if you know this is a problem why isn't it being corrected and how many students don't pick up on it as they just sign up for more loans.

Follow the money.  What monetary incentive is there for the school charging you less?

That's why it's up to you to check.

[Jakejake]

Also Jakejake, how does a college know that your son voted absentee?  I'm curious if you're one of the ones that calls your representative often...

Hahaha, they wouldn't have known that, but the point was the state driver's license and home address was never changed. In my ex's case (we were married at that time), the ONLY time he had left the state was because of military orders. I phrased it that way because I'm always unsure of the spelling of license and was too lazy to double check it and thought I could sneak a workaround in. *hangs head in shame*

I've contacted my elected officials twice for help, and I'm in my 50's. Once was for that, the other time was to get info on an art contest my rep was running because I thought my students might be interested in applying. Oddly, that was a lot more hassle - the office aide for my state representative opened the door a tiny little bit and was aggressively blocking it with her body like she was expecting me to be an assassin or something, it was the most unwelcoming thing ever! I was like "Um, I just wanted some forms for the contest." I did make a mental note never to ask that person for help on any issue ever. I imagine if I had needed something other than a form, they would have called a SWAT team to get rid of me.

[Polish_Hammer]

How long had you been paying out of state tuition? The difference is usually substantial. Did you not research the cost?

Shame on me for not picking up on it.  The difference was 4k/yr so I assumed it was a rate increase from the estimate when we visited the university the year before