fossildoc
01-23-2008, 06:52 PM
Suppose you began your higher education in pursuit of your favorite subject, and, after much searching through compendia of small colleges, finally found one that offered a B.S. in the Political History of the Award of Grants for Studies in Plate Tectonics, or PHAGSPLAT. No other college in the country offers this degree, and, although all courses are accredited, since no one else offers them, they are not transferrable.
And so you enrolled at the modest tuition rate of $5800 per semester, three semesters a year (they'd call them trimesters if there were a summer vacation, or if they were related to the birth process -- which, by some allegorical stretch, they may be). Your parents' budgets are strained to the limit, and they are cosigners for your loans besides; they've had to relinquish the HBO Premium channel, and your little brother had to forgo teen travel camp in the Himalayas in order to pay your school expenses. You are indeed grateful to them for their sacrifices.
Everything is going along fine until your junior year when the school announces a whopping tuition increase, to include all currently enrolled students. You can't possibly afford it. You can finish the current semester, but continuing is out of the question. You can't transfer, because no other school gives courses -- let alone a degree -- in PHAGSPLAT. What should you do? A bachelor's degree in anything is better than no degree in particle physics, but most of your credits are not transferrable because you took all your optional credits in PHAGSPLAT courses. You would have to essentially start all over.
You are, to put it colloquially, screwed.
Is the school allowed to do this? Not for the current semester, but for next: yes, unless you secured in writing an agreement to honor the tuition schedule that was in effect at the time you were admitted.
You did that, right?
When I investigated various Carib med schools, I did get a committment from a couple of them guaranteeing the tuition schedule for the duration. I can't seem to find such a document from Xavier, so it's possible I didn't get one.
Consider the plight of the pre-meds, many of whom are on such a tight budget they have to live like gypsies crowded in small quarters (my apologies to real gypsies, but it's a common metaphor), sharing a pint-sized car and rationing gas like we were in World War II. If forced to leave due to the just-announced tuition hike, they will lose everything, as Carib pre-med courses are not transferrable to any college in the U.S., and rarely to other med schools.
The recent elimination of ICM from the Med 4 curriculum also precludes transferring to another Carib school, all of whom require ICM or its equivalent before leaving their island for the states. Was the ICM move just a coincidence?
I call upon Xavier to honor the tuition schedule that was in effect for each currently enrolled student, and to limit the increase only to new students.
And so you enrolled at the modest tuition rate of $5800 per semester, three semesters a year (they'd call them trimesters if there were a summer vacation, or if they were related to the birth process -- which, by some allegorical stretch, they may be). Your parents' budgets are strained to the limit, and they are cosigners for your loans besides; they've had to relinquish the HBO Premium channel, and your little brother had to forgo teen travel camp in the Himalayas in order to pay your school expenses. You are indeed grateful to them for their sacrifices.
Everything is going along fine until your junior year when the school announces a whopping tuition increase, to include all currently enrolled students. You can't possibly afford it. You can finish the current semester, but continuing is out of the question. You can't transfer, because no other school gives courses -- let alone a degree -- in PHAGSPLAT. What should you do? A bachelor's degree in anything is better than no degree in particle physics, but most of your credits are not transferrable because you took all your optional credits in PHAGSPLAT courses. You would have to essentially start all over.
You are, to put it colloquially, screwed.
Is the school allowed to do this? Not for the current semester, but for next: yes, unless you secured in writing an agreement to honor the tuition schedule that was in effect at the time you were admitted.
You did that, right?
When I investigated various Carib med schools, I did get a committment from a couple of them guaranteeing the tuition schedule for the duration. I can't seem to find such a document from Xavier, so it's possible I didn't get one.
Consider the plight of the pre-meds, many of whom are on such a tight budget they have to live like gypsies crowded in small quarters (my apologies to real gypsies, but it's a common metaphor), sharing a pint-sized car and rationing gas like we were in World War II. If forced to leave due to the just-announced tuition hike, they will lose everything, as Carib pre-med courses are not transferrable to any college in the U.S., and rarely to other med schools.
The recent elimination of ICM from the Med 4 curriculum also precludes transferring to another Carib school, all of whom require ICM or its equivalent before leaving their island for the states. Was the ICM move just a coincidence?
I call upon Xavier to honor the tuition schedule that was in effect for each currently enrolled student, and to limit the increase only to new students.