Metropolitan Community College overcharged some students. But it’s not telling them

If you recently enrolled at any of the Metropolitan Community College campuses in the Kansas City area, you might want to take a good look at your tuition bill.

You may have been charged hundreds, even thousands of dollars more than you should have been.

Students — MCC-KC officials aren’t saying how many — have been approaching enrollment officials at the campuses complaining that the price tag on their fall tuition bills was way too high. The problem involves the Penn Valley, Blue River, Longview, Maple Woods and the Business and Technology campuses.

Turns out tricky language in the online application led some students who live in the MCC district to be charged the higher out-of-district rate.

But the college has not warned students to double check their bills.

“We rely on what students enter on the application,” said John Burke, dean of student development for MCC-Blue River. Burke said it is up to students to notice whether they are paying the in-district or out-of-district rate every time they sign up for classes.

He said the college has a tuition appeal process for students who think they were charged too much.

MCC charges $103 per credit hour for in-district students, $183 for those out of district and $237 for anyone out of state.

But living in the area does not guarantee a student is in district, so the application asks a series of residency questions.

Students are in district if they live in these 12 public school districts: Belton, Blue Springs, Center, Fort Osage, Grandview, Hickman Mills, Kansas City, Independence, Lee’s Summit, North Kansas City, Park Hill and Raytown.

According to the MCC website, “in most cases, you must have been at your in-district or in-state residence for the past 12 consecutive months to receive that residency status.”

One student, who asked to remain anonymous, enrolled in early July and said she noticed her tuition bill was nearly twice what it should have been for someone living in-district and taking six credit hours. She was charged $1,098 instead of $618 for the semester.

Looking closer at her bill she noticed MCC listed her as out of district. She does not know which of her many clicks on the online form resulted in that determination. She took the complaint to the college. An adjustment of the bill saved her nearly $500.

College officials told The Star they eventually changed the form’s language in late July.

“We have updated the application for admission and the residency questions, to make it more clear for students that their responses are used to determine their tuition rate,” said Clare Otto, an MCC spokeswoman. “We regularly make updates to improve the student experience.”

Otto said the college had no way of knowing which students were overcharged before the form was changed. She said MCC has not warned students who enrolled before the change was made that they might have been overcharged.

In August 2017, MCC began a system to flag students who may have been overcharged. But Otto could not say how many students were notified under that system.

This story was originally published August 20, 2018 at 3:23 PM.