Sometimes bad things happen when people attend college. Medical problems, personal problems, and disasters can happen. Some people have turned to alternative methods (besides an emergency fund) to help in case one of those sorts of situations interferes with their ability to finish the semester.
There is such a thing as tuition refund insurance. The whole idea of tuition refund insurance is to pay back the cost of tuition in the event a student is unable to finish the semester/quarter/trimester due to extreme circumstances. This insurance is meant for those who pay with cash or private loans.
The real question is do you need tuition refund insurance? Well if there is a disaster on campus (that directly affects the college/university) then the school will most likely make adjustments such as not charging tuition the next semester when students are then able to complete the courses that they previously started. If that same disaster occurs only to your home (if you live off campus), most schools offer compassionate withdrawals (most of which include tuition refunds). Medical problems, well that is another question.
What if I get extremely ill and can’t finish my semester? Unless you have experienced chronic health problems or have reason to believe that you have a good chance of becoming sick enough to have to leave mid-semester/quarter/trimester (such as a progressive illness), then tuition refund insurance is likely to be a waste of your hard-earned money. Also colleges/universities offer medical withdrawals and many of those withdrawals include tuition refunds. You will have to check with your specific school to learn how that works and how much of a refund you can qualify for depending on when in the semester you were forced to leave. Another option would be to request incompletes in your classes and working with your professors to finish the courses at a later date.
Insurance is important for students, but think about whether or not it will be useful to you. The next post will be about finding insurance for other areas of life.
