CWRU students walking across the binary walkway in summer

Tuition Exchange to continue at CWRU permanently, but changes coming to process

Information sessions for faculty and staff to be held this month

After completing a four-year pilot with a program that provides tuition assistance to dependents of university employees enrolled elsewhere, campus leaders have elected to continue the partnership on a permanent basis.

In 2012, the university joined the Tuition Exchange, a reciprocal scholarship program involving more than 660 colleges and universities. Under its auspices, dependents of employees from one university can apply for scholarship assistance to help pay for attendance at another member school.

The program proved popular among Case Western Reserve staff and faculty, with more than 150 dependents receiving financial assistance starting with the 2013 entering class. Based on this preliminary data, the university is adjusting some of the processes involved in applying for and receiving aid.

Starting with the dependents who enroll in the fall of 2017, the university will seek to balance the number of students enrolling at Case Western Reserve from Tuition Exchange member schools with the number of Case Western Reserve dependents enrolling at Tuition Exchange member institutions.

Case Western Reserve dependents already participating in the program are not impacted this change in policy.

“This program is predicated on a roughly equal balance of students enrolling elsewhere and coming to the participating institution,” explained Rick Bischoff, vice president for Enrollment Management. “We needed to take this step now to narrow the gap between dependents from here going elsewhere and those from other campuses enrolling here.”

The cap on the total of Tuition Exchange participants from Case Western Reserve will change annually based on the anticipated number of dependents from other member schools enrolling here. Eligibility will be based solely on the employees’ years of continuous service at the university—that is, those who have been full-time, benefits-eligible at Case Western Reserve the longest will be the first to be deemed eligible, with more recently hired individuals included in the program until the university reaches that year’s cap.

Only those employees with two or more years of continuous service as of the first day of CWRU’s fall semester each year may apply.

Bischoff’s office and the Office of Human Resources will hold information sessions next week for families to learn more about the program in general and about the impact of the newly adopted approach. The meetings will take place:

  • Wednesday, Sept. 7, from 9 to 10 a.m. in Tinkham Veale University Center, ballroom B
  • Friday, Sept. 9, from 1 to 2 p.m. in Tinkham Veale University Center’s Senior Classroom
  • Tuesday, Sept. 13, from 7 to 8 p.m. in Tinkham Veale University Center, ballroom B

A key change in the model for this year is that the application deadline to determine eligibility for Tuition Exchange is Oct. 1, six months earlier than in previous years. In addition, applicants will learn whether they are eligible to participate by Nov. 1. Download the application form.