Congressional Youth Leadership Council Junior National Young Leaders Conference Won't refund $350 down payment when you cancel ahead of time Vienna, Virginia
Junior National Young Leaders Conference will contact you if your child has been recommended by a teacher/administrator from their school. They advertise a week-long program where your child will travel to this leadership conference in DC. They make it seem like everything will be included with the tuition fee. THIS IS NOT THE CASE.
First you must register with a $350 down payment, followed by 2 more charges of $770 each.
After you enroll and give your down payment, then they send you an informational packet. This packet will tell you that YOU are responsible for making the travel arrangements with the agency they describe in packet. YOU are responsible for paying the travel fee and travel agency fee.
If you try to cancel more than 30 days before the start of the conference, they will NOT refund your initial $350. They state that this is cost you incur by making you reservation and covers the "inconvenience" of removing a registered student from the conference. The only money they will give you back is the other payments (provided you do this more than 30 days before conference).
Should you decide to cancel within 30 days from start of conference, they will charge you the ENTIRE TUITION as their "cancellation fee".
Keep in mind that none of this information was available to us until we had already registered and given the down payment.
Beware if you register your student/child for this conference. You will get screwed if you need to cancel for any reason!!!
1 Updates & Rebuttals
CYLC
Vienna,Virginia,
USA
Travel Expenses & Cancellation Policy are explained before enrolling
#2UPDATE Employee
Wed, August 04, 2010
As the Vice President of Admissions for the Junior National Young Leaders Conference (JrNYLC), I am responding to this post. We regret that the parent who is posting this message did not understand that travel to and from the program location is not included in tuition.
In the Information Booklet that was included with the nomination letter sent to this parent PRIOR to enrolling, it is clearly written under the large bolded heading titled TRAVEL TO WASHINGTON, D.C., The cost of transportation to and from the Conference is not included in the conference tuition. Due to the steep penalties for ticket cancellations, you should not make transportation arrangements until you have been officially notified of your scholars enrollment by CYLC. In that same Information Booklet it is clearly stated under the large bolded heading titled TUITION, SCHOLARSHIPS AND STUDENT FUNDRAISING, that Tuition includes all housing, instruction, and supervision by professional faculty advisors, program activities and sits visits, conference materials, breakfasts, lunches (with the exception of arrival and departure days), dinners and private motor coach transportation to all locations during the conference and is $1,890 for six days. Scholars will need money only for lunches on arrival and departure days, souvenirs and other incidentals (phone calls, snacks, etc.).
This information is also posted on the program website on the program tuition page at http://www.cylc.org/jrnylc/JrNYLC_tuition.cfm (in the first paragraph) and http://www.cylc.org/jrnylc/JrNYLC_faq_parents.cfm (under "What does tuition cover?").
CYLC does require a cancellation fee, which is standard practice in the conference industry. This information is clearly stated in the same pre-enrollment Information Booklet under the bolded heading titled STUDENT CANCELLATIONS AND REFUNDS. During the enrollment process, parents are provided with, and must consent to, the cancellation policy, before completing enrollment. You can view the provided Terms & Conditions with the cancellation policy at https://enroll.highachieving.net/accounts/register123/envtest/events/jrnylcfall2010/JrNYLC%20Non-PP%20App.pdf.
Throughout its 25 years, CYLC has been committed to clearly stating tuition amounts and enrollment and cancellation policies, and to assisting parents and nominees with any questions they may have. We provide parents with toll-free 800 numbers and e-mail addresses and encourage them to use these to contact us for any questions or assistance they may need.
CYLC will enroll over 6,700 students in the Junior National Young Leaders Conference this year, and via our web site at http://www.cylc.org/, parents can review what the public, the media and parents, as well as students who have attended the program are saying, about the experience.
CYLC is also proud to be accredited with the Better Business Bureau, and encourage all parents to view our rating with the Better Business Bureau at http://www.dc.bbb.org/codbrep.html?ID=7001305.
If you have questions or would like further information, please call (703) 584-9438.
Thank you,
Karen Trendell
Vice President of Admissions