Fee Structure Request Letter

When and how to use this letter

Send this letter before you pay any admission fee, token amount, or registration charge. Once money changes hands, your negotiating position disappears, and several so-called refundable token amounts turn out to be adjustable only in theory. Address the request to the principal or the admissions office, and ask specifically for the structure in writing, on letterhead or in the official fee booklet. Verbal quotes given during a school tour have a habit of changing by the time the first invoice arrives.

Ask about the charges schools prefer not to mention upfront: annual activity fees, examination fees, development funds, and the yearly increase percentage. Many private schools raise fees by 5 to 10 percent each year, which compounds brutally over a child's schooling, so a school that is affordable today may not be affordable in class 5. Also separate refundable components, like caution money, from non-refundable ones, like admission fees, so you know your true exit cost.

The comparison trick: request the fee structure from three schools in the same week and lay the breakups side by side. Schools with similar headline tuition often differ enormously once transport, meals, and annual charges are added, and the cheapest headline fee is frequently not the cheapest year. Keep the written structures in a file. If a charge appears on the first invoice that was never in the structure, that document is your evidence for disputing it.

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