Over $11,000 price increase without informing students. Is this normal?

[nextstoppas]

Hello!

I'm curious to know if other students are dealing with substantial price increases at their programs? I understand tuition typically raises some each year at all programs however my school has increased the total tuition to where we are already paying over $11,000 what was originally told to us during orientation and its only the first year. And we are told there is another tuition increase expected before we graduate. Some calculations students have done to calculate the total cost will put us at $17,000 over what we were originally told.

We also were not formally informed of the tuition increase. Students had to ask about it after calculating the prices on their own or noticing their loan money was off.

I'm looking for advice if this is normal or even legal (since the money was taken from our accounts without being informed) or if this is an issue the ARC-PA can be informed of?

Any advice and insight would be really helpful, thank you!!

[ohiovolffemtp]

I can't speak to the legalities of what you're experiencing, but when I was exploring PA school, each on quoted the cost of the program.  It typically increased for each cohort, but once you matriculated, your cost was fixed.  Can you go back to the student handbook, the program's web site, or anything else that would see if they told you upfront that this could happen?

[TeddyRucpin]

New program? It sounds sketchy. I would have loved to see programs REDUCE tuition when they were doing the online classes/rotation deal; however, that was a pipe dream.

[KSgirl]

Wow- did they have any evidence of what the extra tuition $ is for to validate the raise in costs? 

 

[nextstoppas]

On 11/1/2021 at 11:55 PM, ohiovolffemtp said:

I can't speak to the legalities of what you're experiencing, but when I was exploring PA school, each on quoted the cost of the program.  It typically increased for each cohort, but once you matriculated, your cost was fixed.  Can you go back to the student handbook, the program's web site, or anything else that would see if they told you upfront that this could happen?

The only records I have of the tuition are during interview week when they gave us the expected total costs. On interview papers they have written down that prices are subject to change, which makes sense since students would not be starting the program for another year. I am mainly concerned with the lack of notification and communication of major price increases after the class had matriculated and had already signed contracts. 

[nextstoppas]

On 11/2/2021 at 10:57 AM, TeddyRucpin said:

New program? It sounds sketchy. I would have loved to see programs REDUCE tuition when they were doing the online classes/rotation deal; however, that was a pipe dream.

Yes it is a new program and it shows. I agree, very sketchy. 

[nextstoppas]

On 11/2/2021 at 3:19 PM, KSgirl said:

Wow- did they have any evidence of what the extra tuition $ is for to validate the raise in costs? 

 

They didn't even notify the students that there was an increase in the tuition. They just took the money out of our loans and never mentioned that it had been taken out or what it was for. The tuition was higher for certain semesters when the course load was less. It doesn't seem to have any correlation with the courses we are taking. So, no they haven't given any explanation for where the money went. Whenever students asked why it was increasing, faulty would reply with "it is not our decision, it is coming from people higher up" or just say I didn't know it has increased.

[TeddyRucpin]

Just now, nextstoppas said:

They didn't even notify the students that there was an increase in the tuition. They just took the money out of our loans and never mentioned that it had been taken out or what it was for. The tuition was higher for certain semesters when the course load was less. It doesn't seem to have any correlation with the courses we are taking. So, no they haven't given any explanation for where the money went. Whenever students asked why it was increasing, faulty would reply with "it is not our decision, it is coming from people higher up" or just say I didn't know it has increased.

Get a town hall meeting with the program director and whoever makes these decisions. New programs have NO skin in the game in the PA world.

[KSgirl]

20 hours ago, nextstoppas said:

They didn't even notify the students that there was an increase in the tuition. They just took the money out of our loans and never mentioned that it had been taken out or what it was for. The tuition was higher for certain semesters when the course load was less. It doesn't seem to have any correlation with the courses we are taking. So, no they haven't given any explanation for where the money went. Whenever students asked why it was increasing, faulty would reply with "it is not our decision, it is coming from people higher up" or just say I didn't know it has increased.

That does not sit right with me. If program faculty is not being open to discussion/reasoning I would escalate to "higher ups" that they are placing this decision on. 

[CAAdmission]

On 11/4/2021 at 1:33 PM, KSgirl said:

That does not sit right with me. If program faculty is not being open to discussion/reasoning I would escalate to "higher ups" that they are placing this decision on. 

You need to understand that faculty have zero say in program tuition. Nada. It might even be over the college president's head. 

Tuition is usually set by someone like the board of trustees.