Withdrawal & Refund Policy

Withdrawal & Refund Policy

All Students
Students with an F-1 (Student) Visa
Students without an F-1 Visa
Evening Classes
Mitigating Circumstances and Cancellation of Courses by Agape
Homestay Fees
Books

All Students

Students who have signed the enrollment agreement with Agape and then withdraw will receive a refund of tuition for the current session if they submit a written request to Agape to withdraw within the first three days after the enrollment agreement is signed, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and school holidays. (Students with F-1 visas, see important information below.) However, an additional administrative charge of up to 500 USD will be deducted from the refund due to any full-time student who withdraws early from a session at any time after enrollment, regardless of the circumstances (the administrative charge for part-time students is 100 USD per course withdrawn). The homestay fee is only partially refundable after the student enters the homestay (see below). Application or registration fees (for enrollment and homestay, if applicable), mailing fees, student insurance premiums, the 3% credit card fee and wire transfer fees are not refundable. Any tuition or other fees that have been prepaid for future sessions are fully refundable.

Students with an F-1 (Student) Visa

Students are obligated to pay all tuition and fees for one full session at or before the time of enrollment. New homestay students must pay all homestay fees by wire transfer/Western Union before they arrive in Columbia or Greenville to enter their homestay. (There is a 25 USD fee for all wire transfers.) See Agape's Schedule of Fees for a list of current prices. There is a 100 USD fee for late registration. Students who enroll late for any reason do not receive a reduction of tuition, application fees, book fees, or most other fees. Students from countries that do not participate in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program who have family members or relatives serving as sponsors in the U.S. must prepay tuition for two full sessions (3,000 USD) before an I-20 can be issued by Agape. Contact Agape for details.

Applicants accepted by Agape but who are denied an F-1 (student) visa may submit a written request to Agape for a full refund of any prepaid tuition and/or homestay fee. Written proof of denial of student visa must be submitted along with the request for a refund. Students who obtain an F-1 visa but then choose not to enter the U.S. may also submit a written request for a refund. In every case, students who have already received an I-20 from Agape must return the original I-20 form to Agape along with their written request in order to be eligible for a refund. Application fees (for enrollment and homestay, if applicable) and any mailing fees (if applicable) are not refundable.

A 250 USD administrative fee will be retained by Agape from the refund if any student who has a U.S. sponsor and has been required to prepay tuition (see above) does not enter the U.S. If any student with an F-1 visa enters the U.S. but does not register for classes at Agape and pay all fees due for their initial session of study, Agape will terminate that student's record with the U.S. government (SEVIS) and will not refund any prepaid tuition, homestay fee, or other fees and charges.

After the student arrives at Agape and the enrollment agreement has been signed, students generally have up to three days in which to withdraw and still be eligible for a refund of tuition. However, an additional administrative charge of up to 500 USD is deducted from the refund due to every student who withdraws early from a session after having signed the enrollment agreement with Agape, regardless the reason for withdrawal. The homestay fee is only partially refundable after the student enters the homestay. Student insurance premiums are not refundable.

Students who reside in the United States and want to change their visa status to F-1 (student) should contact Agape for further application policies and procedures. Agape may retain up to two sessions of tuition paid by students who have enrolled at Agape while awaiting confirmation from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) regarding a request to change their visa status within the United States. This is due to the processing time required for USCIS to process a change of status request.

A 250 USD administrative fee will be retained by Agape for any applicant or student who resides in the U.S. and applies for a change, from any visa category, to an F-1 (student) visa and who is denied adjustment to his/her visa status. Applicants who are denied adjustment to an F-1 visa, and who do not wish to enroll at Agape under another visa category, may submit a written request to Agape for a full refund of any prepaid tuition and/or homestay fee, minus the 250 USD administrative fee.

Students without an F-1 Visa

In addition to the availability of refund described in the section “All Students” above, students who are not on an student visa and who submit a written request to withdraw or transfer after the first three days following the signing of the enrollment agreement may be eligible to receive a pro-rated refund of any unused tuition for the current session if the written request is received by Agape before 33% of the session is completed, counting from the date of the student's enrollment (normally, before the end of the third week of classes). The amount of refund will be calculated by dividing the total number of clock hours for which the student has paid into the number of clock hours remaining after the last recorded day of attendance by the student. All refunds are subject to the 500 USD administrative charge described above. Students without a student visa who withdraw or transfer after 33% of a session is complete (counting from the date of the student's enrollment) will receive no refund of any unused tuition for the current session.

Evening Classes

Agape offers evening classes to non-F-1 students based on the availability of enough interested students to cover the costs to Agape, which include classroom costs and teachers' salaries. Because evening classes typically have fewer students, the withdrawal of even one or a few students may mean that Agape will be unable to cover its costs. Therefore, Agape does not generally give refunds of tuition or fees to students who choose to withdraw from evening classes after having signed the enrollment agreement (fees for books and supplies may be refunded according to the policy below). One exception is when a student who has enrolled for an evening class scores significantly higher or lower on the Michigan Placement Test than do other students in the same class. In such a case, if the local director believes that the student cannot be adequately taught in the mixed-level classroom with the other students, the student may be allowed to withdraw from the enrollment agreement with a full refund of tuition and fees (except for any student insurance premiums already paid).

Mitigating Circumstances and Cancellation of Courses by Agape

Students who are not eligible for a refund according to the above policy may be eligible for a pro-rated refund of tuition due to mitigating circumstances. Mitigating circumstances are those which are beyond the student's control and which directly prohibit a student from pursuing their program of study. For refund purposes, mitigating circumstances are defined as serious illness of the student, death in the student's immediate family, or active duty military service, including active duty for training. The student must submit a written request stating the mitigating circumstances, with documentation attached (as applicable). An additional administrative charge of up to 500 USD will be deducted from the refund due to any student who withdraws or transfers at any time after enrollment, regardless of the circumstances.

If Agape decides to cancel a course for which a student has already paid tuition (for example, because of low enrollment for an evening course), and if Agape cannot offer a suitable alternative course in place of the canceled course, then Agape will refund the full tuition for any remaining number of classes that will not be held for the canceled course. If the canceled course is the only Agape course in which a student is enrolled for that session, then Agape will refund all of the additional application and other fees (except for student insurance premiums) that were paid by the student for that session, without charging any administrative fee for withdrawal.

Homestay Fees

The homestay fee is fully refundable only for those students who withdraw or transfer from Agape before entering (moving into) their homestay. After entering the homestay, the student may receive a partial refund of the homestay fee if the student submits a written request for a refund to Agape before 20% of the session is complete, counting from the date of the student's enrollment (normally, this is by the end of the second week of classes, counting weekends). The amount of the refund will be calculated by dividing the total number of homestay days for which the student has paid into the number of homestay days remaining after the last day of residence by the student in the homestay location, up to a maximum refund of 500 USD for the current session (the amount of the maximum refund will be prorated accordingly for students who enroll late in the session). Generally, any additional homestay fees that have been prepaid for future sessions are fully refundable. However, if the student has prepaid the homestay fee for a session following a vacation session (as required in the AELI Student Handbook), this prepaid fee (for one session) will not be refundable if the student fails to re-enroll for classes as promised after the end of the vacation session.

The homestay application fee is not refundable.

Books

All efforts will be made to issue refunds to withdrawing students for amounts they prepaid for books, unless the student has used (for example, written in) or damaged those items such that they can no longer be used or sold to new students, or returned by Agape to the supplier as “new” merchandise. A student who already owns a required class text may choose not to receive that text at the beginning of the session under certain conditions (see “Books” in the Student Handbook).