Lyndsay Parks: [00:00:00] Just gonna kinda go over the basics. Um, and then there’ll be kind of like some what if scenarios at the end, and then obviously, um, open to questions all throughout the presentation and at the end. So please feel free to ask your questions. Um, and I will answer them the best that I can. And if not, I will, uh, get back to you with an email.

So. Um, great. So what is tuition break if you are not familiar with the program? It is a tuition discount for out-of-state tuition for New England students, specifically at our public colleges and universities. So what this is, is if you are going to a public New England, um, university or college. And you are from out of state, so you’re from Connecticut and you are going to an institution in Massachusetts.

You could get, uh, discounted out of state tuition. Uh, some [00:01:00] institutions require, uh, the students to enroll in an eligible major to receive the discount. Other institutions do not, and we will get into the differences there in a second. So who is, um, Nebi is our acronym that we use? Uh, so the New England Board of Higher Education.

If you’re not familiar, we are one of four compacts throughout the us so we specifically cover New England, um, sometimes New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Join us. For other projects and programs that we orchestrate throughout the region. Um, but for this one, we are just the New England states for the tuition break.

Um, but we do have our sister compacts for the Midwest, the western region, and the southern region. And these other compacts also have a version of tuition break. It’s not exactly the same, um, but they all have something similar that they put on in their regions.[00:02:00]

So how are the programs approved for this reduced cost through tuition break? Um, so a little bit of background before we kind of jump in the two definitions here. We started this program in the 1950s. All six of the New England governors got together and decided that they wanted to allow better access to their higher education institutions.

Um, and they really wanted to highlight. Their specialized programs that they have. So they were allowing students to, you know, if my home state doesn’t have the major I wanna do, but, um, the state next door does, they kind of came up with this, uh, tuition agreement for the six New England states. So for specialized programs, this is, um.

Or if, like I was saying kind of the original, like origins of the program. So if your state does not have, um, the major that you [00:03:00] wanna do at one of your public universities, um, and one of the other New England states does, you may be eligible to get that discounted tuition. Um, if you enroll in that major.

So that’s kind of the, uh, like I said, the origins of the program. It’s something that we’ve been, um, doing since the fifties. Uh, we have a, uh, pretty rigorous review process that we do every summer with the institute. With the institutions, um, where they submit programs. So that’s something that we’re always updating, always adding new programs, um, allowing institutions to submit.

So that’s something that we do every year. Um, and then about in 2018, we added a new option, um, that our institutions requested, is that they asked if they could give the, uh. Tuition break rate, uh, to all New England residents regardless of major. So if you see an institution and they’re [00:04:00] offering a tuition break rate or a nebi rate, um, RSP, there’s a lot of different things people call it, uh, on their websites.

Uh, and they’re saying that anyone from New England can get. This discount regardless of major, um, that is still part of our program. Um, we still post all of the majors for those institutions on our website. Um, it’s just that the students don’t have to meet that extra criteria to receive that discounted out of state tuition.

So a question I get all the time when I go to college fairs, um, or, you know, check the inbox, is, how do I apply for tuition break? Um, and the simple answer is you don’t. Uh, there’s nothing that students have to do with us, with nbi. To receive this discounted out-of-state tuition. This is something that the institutions do entirely on their own.

Um, so here’s kind of like a [00:05:00] checklist as you’re talking to students, as you’re talking to your families, um, of how they can make sure that they’re going to have that discounted tuition when they get that first bursar bill. So they wanna make sure that their home state of residence is, uh, one of the six New England states.

And, um, usually they just go based on where the student either graduated from high school or what their, um, address says when they apply. So that’s really important. Um. If they are interested in an institution that is specialized, so that means they only allow you to receive that rate. If you’re enrolled in an eligible program, make sure that you’ve researched the eligible majors for your state on our website.

So if you go to nebby.org/tuition break, we have a search tool that you can use where you can look up specific institutions and see the list of majors and then what states are available there. [00:06:00] Um, the third thing you’d wanna recommend is that they submit their applications for, um, admissions to those institutions.

Uh, so that’s their application for tuition break is just applying to the institution. So there’s nothing additional that they have to do on our end. Um. Some institutions do require the students to fill out an extra form. It’s just essentially a residency, um, verification. So that’s something they may maybe wanna be on the lookout for.

Sometimes on the admissions applications, there’s a checkbox that a student has to check to say, yes, they’re a New England resident, or, yes, like they want to be considered for tuition break. Um, and it can be really easy to miss. Um, so something just to keep an eye out for, as students are filling out their applications.

And then if there’s any other questions, obviously we always recommend students reach [00:07:00] out to their admissions officer, officers, admissions counselors to, you know, get the most updated information possible, um, because there could be additional requirements with specific scholarships. Um, it just kind of depends on the institution.

So what kind of degree qualifies? Um, all of them. So, uh, tuition break can be applied to associates, c certificates, bachelor’s, master’s, and it actually goes all the way up to professional degrees and PhDs. So if you have a student who you know is looking at long-term plans, they want to go to medical school, they wanna get their PhD, they wanna get their master’s.

Um, you can say, Hey, like, you can actually go to all of these different institutions and receive these degrees at that discounted rate. If they really just don’t wanna go to their home institutions or [00:08:00] their home institutions don’t offer the advanced degrees that they’re interested in. So a common question that we get a lot is can you combine tuition break with, um, financial aid and then scholarships, any other cost saving opportunities?

Uh, the answer is yes. So they obviously need to fill out a fafsa. Um, I’m sure that is something that you are constantly saying to your students, um, as I’m. As I am. So yes, they do need to complete the fafsa, but they can stack, um, their, uh, tuition break discount with any, um, student financial aid. So any grants, any loans, um, anything that’s coming from, like from um, work, study, anything that’s coming from.

When they fill out the fafsa, any of those kind of direct programs, um, something to remember and to let your students know is that this is a discount. This [00:09:00] is not a scholarship. It is not a grant, so it will not affect their, um, future years. Fafsa, um, also will not need to be reported for taxes or anything along those lines.

Like they won’t be getting, um, a form. Saying that they received a scholarship, um, from us that they’d have to report, um, because it’s a discount, so it should appear on your students’ bursar bills as, um, just another rate of tuition. It shouldn’t appear as if they’re getting like a scholarship or anything along those lines.

Um, so obviously financial aid scholarships are awarded based on the discretion of the college and university, so that’s something that they’d want to keep in mind. I do know that there are two public institutions I can think of off the top of my head that do not allow students to stack the tuition break discount.

[00:10:00] And their merit awards. So the ones that are automatically given to students based on, you know, certain criteria, um, you have to pick one or the other. So that is something to keep your eye on. I always say make sure to read the fine print at every institution that you apply for. Um. Usually every institution has a web, like a page on their website that talks about tuition break.

Um, and you can go and look there and see what it says. So if you’re not sure, um, if you’re looking at an institution and you’re not sure if it’s one that allows stacking or not, um, please send me an email or my coordinator an email and we’d be happy to look into it. We have a kind of running. List of fine print.

We call it a fine print database, um, to make sure that we know exactly how students can use our discount at their institutions. Um, but the majority of our institutions do allow students to receive the discount and then scholarships on top of that. [00:11:00] So let’s run through a couple of scenarios that we tend to get a lot of questions about.

Um, so this hopefully will help you feel confident when you have a student who asks. You know, how do I kind of go through this process? So I live in blank state and want to go to blank college or university? How do I know if I qualify for tuition break? I talked about this a little bit earlier, but the most important thing they can do is to check the.

Um, active list on our website. So that’s a, um, active database that that information pulls from. Um, it’s updated weekly, almost daily sometimes. So every time they look at that, that is the most UpToDate current information. That the institutions have reported to us. Um, so that’s going to be your biggest resource when it comes to checking the eligibility for the states and then the [00:12:00] colleges and universities.

Um, so, and sometimes it changes. So there could be a program that was eligible one year, um, and then the eligibility goes away the next year because that state has added, you know, that same program to their listing.

My chosen major isn’t offered in my state, but it’s also not listed on the tuition break program at the school that I’m interested in. Um, can I still access the tuition break discount? Typically no. Um, that means that the institution has made a conscious choice not to include that program on their listings for the, uh, discount.

It also means that, um, they could have submitted it for, for review, but, um, the other states all said they had a comparable program, so it got knocked out of the eligibility. Um, also sometimes that [00:13:00] major just does not exist in New England. Um, there’s a few different ones that are, um, maybe more common in other parts of the US that aren’t common up here, like professional golf management.

Um, I have not come across that program yet in New England, so if that’s something that a student is interested in, they will have to leave New England, um, to, to pursue that degree. So. That’s a little bit about how that works. Um, I’m always open to receiving an email though, and just to ask, to be like, Hey, I’m really interested in this major at this institution.

I see it’s not on the listing, but my home state doesn’t have it. Um, and I’m happy to do some research and look into it. We have a ongoing, like I said, database where we kind of track all of that information. So sometimes it’s an easy search for me to say actually. That got taken off eligibility, you know, this year.

Or I can say, you know, they’ve never submitted it. We can see if they’d be interested. Um, and we [00:14:00] can go from there.

Stephanie Wells: Lindsay, I’m just gonna interrupt you real quick ’cause we do have a, a question that relates to this. Okay. Um, so I’ll just read it for you and you can answer it. Um, so do you have a list or are you able to distribute a list of schools who don’t require enrollment in a certain major?

Um, ’cause their experience is that, you know, some schools who require enrollment in a certain major, they might select obscure majors versus, you know, some of the ones that students might really want. So it doesn’t, it’s not really helpful at that school.

Lyndsay Parks: Yes, absolutely. So, um, on our website right now, the only way to really see that is if they have an F listed next to their name in brackets.

Um, so that means flexible. Um. Our database is a little old, so, uh, that was just the easiest way for my predecessors to do that. Um, I’m actually working [00:15:00] on a report right now on flexible institutions. Um, we’re looking at the, you know, kind of longevity of how the, uh, flexible policy has impacted the program.

Um, so yes, I actually do have a list of. The flexible institutions. Now, it’s not something that we necessarily post anywhere just because it’s um, that’s also ever changing. Um, but I’m happy to email that to you. So if you are interested in that, um, I’m happy to send it to you. Just know that once I send it to you, it could be immediately out of date because I have already had two more institutions decide that they wanna go flexible for the next academic year.

So sometimes. It’s just an ongoing conversation that I’m having with the colleges and universities deciding if they wanna go flexible. But yes, um, I’m happy to, um, send that out to you if, if you would like, so feel free to, [00:16:00] um, give Stephanie your email address, um, and she can pass that off over to me and I can, um, send that your way and, and then if you’re ever curious if it’s changed, feel free to reach out to me and I can let you know.

Stephanie Wells: That’s great. I’ll, I’ll send that over to you, Lindsey. And, um, do you, this is a question actually for me. Mm-hmm. And you might be talking about this later. Do, do you provide, um, do you get feedback from counselors or families and provide that to colleges? You know, you know, if you hear from families like, I really wish they were offering that major, do you provide feedback to the schools?

Lyndsay Parks: Um, if. If I have a kind of like, I wouldn’t say good relationship, but if they’re willing to communicate, um, I’ll be honest, we have about 66 institutions that we work with and some are more communicative than [00:17:00] others. So yes, sometimes um, I’m able to pass that off and say, Hey, like I’ve heard from a family and they’re really interested in this.

Um. Major, like, is there any possibility that that could be, um, added, you know, to your listings? Um, I have done that a few times this year already, just based on emails that I’ve gotten from students and families. Um, I’ve, I’ve even, you know, given a few departments a phone call just to ask them, you know, why that’s, you know, it’s not being listed or something along those lines.

So, uh, yes, that’s, that’s kinda the answer there. Always happy to, um. Pass that information along for you. ’cause I know that, um. Sometimes you, you know, hear some information from a family or from, from students and I might be the easiest way to get that information back for you. So absolutely happy to do that as well.

Um, I’ll have a slide at the end with my email [00:18:00] address. Okay. So. You’re, uh, I’ll make sure to leave it up for a little bit of time so you can write it down, or maybe Stephanie will be able to send it out, um, in the email when she sends the slides out.

Stephanie Wells: Yeah, everybody will get the slides. Yeah.

Lyndsay Parks: Yeah, so, oh, yes.

’cause it’ll be in the slides. Um, but yes, if, if you know of anything, um. And I’ve actually been in talk with one institution where they were like, Hey, why don’t we, like, they were asking about their own listing. They’re like, why haven’t we ever put this major forward? Um, so we kind of had this back and forth to see, um, what the possibility was going to look like there, um, with their eligibility.

So.

Stephanie Wells: Great. And, and one more quest follow

Lyndsay Parks: up

Stephanie Wells: question from a, um, a counselor and then we can move on to the next slide. Just to clarify, flexible, does that mean that schools select certain majors.

Lyndsay Parks: No. So flexible does, it does not matter about the major at all. So they’re going to give that discounted out-of-state tuition to all New England residents, regardless of major.

[00:19:00] So they can go undecided, they can go, you know, in. A very, maybe more popular major, like, you know, a business admin or um, mechanical engineering, something kind along those lines, that’s a more common major and still receive that discount, right? So it does not matter what they enroll in.

Stephanie Wells: Okay. Thank you.

I’ll let you.

Lyndsay Parks: You’re welcome.

Stephanie Wells: Continue.

Lyndsay Parks: Great. Um, so some, um, important information as, as counselors that students probably aren’t thinking about when they’re thinking about enrolling in a specific major. Maybe just to get the discount. So what happens if I change from a tuition break eligible to a non tuition break eligible?

So, um, unfortunately from that moment on, they will be charged the standard out-of-state tuition rate for that institution. Um, if they. Uh, if for some reason the institution [00:20:00] removes that program and so that’s why it becomes non tuition break eligible, they will actually receive the discount until they graduate.

So they’ll be, um, grandfathered in. I know that. They don’t really like to use that term anymore, but I can’t think of a better way to des to, um, describe it to you guys. So, uh, yes. If your student enrolls and then they decide to change their major into a non tuition break eligible major, they’ll be charged that full out-of-state rate.

Um, unless it was the institution who removed the program or even discontinued the program altogether, um, they will be grandfathered in and receive that rate. Until they graduate. Um, and then so the opposite, so what if they go to the institution, they enroll in a non tuition break major, and then they actually change their mind and they switch their major into.

A tuition break major at that [00:21:00] college. Um, the answer is usually, and that’s when you would want to go immediately talk to the registrar, the, um, you know, their advisor. Maybe, um, whoever at that institution can kind of guide them to a person that would need to maybe like flip the switch in the system or, you know, get them on the right list.

Um. It really just depends. We actually have a representative listed for every single institution who is the main point contact for that institution. So if you go onto our website, our listing, our search tool, and you look at that institution specifically, you’ll be able to see, um, who at that institution they should reach out to if they have.

You know, any questions or if they’ve changed their major into a tuition break eligible major and they want to receive that discount. So [00:22:00] that’s definitely the first step they should take, um, after they’ve changed their major, is to see if they can get that discount moving forward.

So how much of a discount? Um, this tends to be a very popular question that I get, and unfortunately I don’t have a very clear answer because there is quite a wide, wide range of tuition. Uh. You know, costs throughout the region, especially since we have associates level all the way up to professional PhD.

So if we just are looking at the average savings, it’s about $8,500 a year. Um, and so. That’s gonna vary drastically though, depending on where the student is enrolled. Like if they’re at a community college, their costs are going to be much less right than if they enroll in maybe at one of the flagship land grant, um, research institutions, [00:23:00] right?

So it’s going to look a little bit different just based on where the student is interested in going. Um. The easiest way to find out what that, uh, tuition is, is that we actually post it on, um, our website with the listings. So usually you can see what that tuition discount is. Um. On, on our website. Um, they have to update that with us every single year during our, uh, review process.

So you’re always seeing the most current up-to-date numbers. And if you’re looking at something and it isn’t just quite making sense to you, um, feel free to reach out and we can double check. We can also send you a link to that institution’s website where they have the tuition break rate posted. We keep track of those as well.

Um, but just so you know, the, uh, way it works is it’s a maximum of [00:24:00] 175% of in-state tuition, so that’s as high as an institution can go with their tuition break rate. They can go as close to in-state tuition as they would like. I’d say the median is probably one 50, so I’d say most institutions are about at 150%.

So right in the middle between in-state and out-of-state tuition. Um. Some institutions obviously go all the way up to 1 75. Um, and then some institutions are much nicer and they’re just right above a hundred percent. Um, some institutions even just give the in-state rate. It really depends. Um, we give a lot of, uh, flexibility to our institutions to make this program work for them.

Um, so this is kind of. An ever changing number, the one 75% does not change. That is written into, um, our policy that the institutions agree [00:25:00] to, but as they change tuition, um. That rate, I mean the, the tuition break rate will change as well. So I always recommend that that’s something that the students, um, and families look at themselves specifically for the institutions they’re interested in.

Um, ’cause it can vary based on where they’re looking at.

So a couple of just fast facts for you. So like I said previously, there’s about 8,500 average annual savings, but I’ve seen, um. Much higher savings depending on the institution. Uh, we have over 3000, uh, programs available on our listings. So, and that number grows every year. More and more institutions are adding, um, maybe more specialized programs or either just deciding to go flexible, so they’re adding all of their majors into the listing.

Um. We have [00:26:00] 68 participating institutions. I think I said 66 earlier, but I guess at a 66, 68. Um, and then we have over 9,000 students enrolled in the program at this point. So we have not done our data collection for this academic year that we’re in right now, but for last year we had over 9,000 students enrolled across the regions.

And then that is the sh like the, the, you know, fast and furious of it. Um, that’s my information there. Um, so my name, my coordinator under me is Kush. Um, we have an 800 number that you can give to students and families, and then this tuition break. Email is a really great email to pass to your, um, students and families because we monitor that.

Not 24 7, but you know, Monday through Friday, nine to five. Um, so it’s going to [00:27:00] be probably the quickest way to get an answer from us about tuition break. Um, I did not put my personal email on here, so I’ll just tell it to you. It is l and [email protected]. So that’s my personal email. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Um, we also go to college fairs all throughout the region or career fairs, anything along those lines. Um, if you would be interested in having us there or for a presentation or a session or anything along those lines, please let us know. Um, we don’t make it to all of them. Uh, you know, it’s a, it’s a big region.

Um, we really enjoy. Evening fairs and weekend fairs if you have those, because parents tend to like our booth a little bit better. Um, so if we know parents will be there, that tends to, to be a better outcome for us. But, um, we’re always happy to receive an invitation to [00:28:00] your events, um, if you would, if you would like a step like us to be there.

So.

Stephanie Wells: Thank you Lindsay. Yeah, so I’m just gonna open it up for questions if folks wanna type in any questions that they have, and then if you wouldn’t mind going, yeah. Thank you Lindsay.

Lyndsay Parks: Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Wells: So, um, while folks are typing in their questions, I have a few, few public service announcements. So we have a couple QR codes, and again, everybody will receive these slides.

So you’ll get these QR codes to register for upcoming MEFA Institute webinars. And then if you wanna share our resources with families, which we hope you’ll do, um, please, you know, click on that. And we have a whole school counselor page on MEFA.org. Um, if you wanna go to the next one, Lindsey. Thank you.

And then here are all our social media channels. If you like a podcast, we have a great podcast and all of our videos and, uh, webinars and things are on our YouTube channel. So if you wanna go to the next one, great. [00:29:00] And so MEFA is available Monday through Friday, nine to five for families if they wanna call, if they want to email.

If you go right on MEFA.org. On the homepage there’s a section that says Contact us that has our phone number and email, as well as the link to creating a one-on-one appointment, which is a Zoom appointment. I actually recommended this to a student yesterday who was having trouble filling out their fafsa so we can, you know, help with things like that.

If they want us to look at their financial aid offers and, you know, help them figure out a strategy to pay their bill before they deposit, things like that, we can help them from pretty much anything from A to Z. So feel free to share that with families. And then the other thing I also want to do, which I’m just gonna take over the screen real quick, Lindsay.

Lyndsay Parks: Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Wells: And I’m going to share, um. An agenda for an upcoming [00:30:00] training that we have next week. So this is a free training for school counselors and we haven’t done an in-person training since pre pandemic. So this is our first sort of, you know, tiptoeing back into the waters. So we hope that you’ll all come or, you know, share with your staff.

We have plenty of space. It’s free. And breakfast and lunch is included. So you can see the agenda here. We’re gonna. Start off the day with a panel discussion with some experts from Worcester Area Colleges since it’s at Assumption. And we’re gonna get into, you know, what’s going on in the industry. Um, one big, beautiful bill, all the, all the impacts of that, that, we’ll, they’ll get into that and talk about what’s happening on their campuses.

Then we’ll have breakout sessions where Financial aid 1 0 1 talking about the basics of financial aid. As well as a second session if folks have, you know, feel like they’re pretty, got the basics handled and you [00:31:00] wanna deeper dive into maybe institutional methodology, talking about the CSS profile. So you can choose which session you’ll wanna go to.

And then we’ll also have a representative, a colleague from DCF Seth, who will talk about resources for foster youth through their programs. And we’ll have a free lunch with networking. And then we’re gonna talk about, we have Andrea Keenan from MEFA. Who’s gonna talk about my Massachusetts financial aid resources, including the MAFA form, which we know a lot of folks have questions about.

And then we’re gonna end the day talking about free resources for school counselors through MEFA. So MEFA Institute, like the one we’re talking about that you’re on right now. But also our MEFA seminar program. So if you haven’t had a seminar, whether in person or Zoom for your families, we’ve re relaunched that and revamped it.

And we’re currently, you know, continuing to update that program and make it, uh, more useful [00:32:00] for your family. So please join us. It’s a free day. We’re gonna have experts from all over. And we also have, let me just. Throw out the registration form. If you are getting me for emails, you should have gotten an invitation to this training.

Um, so you, I can email you the link here to the registration form if you want it. Um, but you know, you know my email as wells atva.org. If you, if you don’t have that, I can email you this link. I don’t think it’s on our website. Easy to find. You’d have to get it through the Evite, but I wanted to share that with everybody so that you know about this great training coming up next Friday.

Still plenty of time to our register. Alright, so I don’t see any questions coming in. Um, so I think we’re good with the questions. So I just wanna thank you Lindsay. It was nice seeing you today and thank everybody who joined us again. We will share the link. Um. To the webinar [00:33:00] recording as well as the slides with everybody who registered.

So with that I’m gonna end the webinar and thank our guest Lindsay, and hope everybody has a great day and continue shoveling out from the storm that we had this week. So have a great day everybody. Thanks for coming. Thanks Lindsay. Bye

bye.