Costs, Discounts & Refund FAQs

Starting this fall, OTA's courses will run on a trimester schedule consisting of three terms (Fall, Winter, and Spring).  Each term is 10 weeks long, and most OTA courses will meet either once or twice a week, for up to 90 minutes per session. (The exception to this rule are our writing courses, which will continue to meet every other week, in order to give students ample time to complete their assignments.) The weekly schedule applies to single trimester, double trimester, and year long classes alike. If a year long course meets twice a week, it is because OTA feels that class needs to be held at this frequency in order for the course to meet requirements for high school credit.   Most courses that meet twice weekly are high school level math and foreign language classes; however, there may be cases where high school level history, social sciences and English courses may also run on a twice weekly schedule. All prices are determined independently for each course, based on the frequency of the class.  Please note the frequency of class meetings per week, and length of course term, so you can clearly understand pricing.   Our goal is to give your children the BEST education we can offer while paying our teachers fairly, instead of undercutting the competition.

Yes! Open Tent Academy is more than happy to work out a payment plan. An initial deposit of 25% must be put down with registration. After that, we take the remainder due and split up into three equals payments to be paid out over the following three months. Please contact us at register@opententacademy.com BEFORE registering so we can put a plan into place. If you withdraw from a class, please note, all payment plans are non-refundable. Please note: If you require more than three payments, please ask. We do offer that on a case-by-case basis.

Yes, OTA does!   If one family is taking more than five classes (either one child OR with any combination of siblings) the discount is 10% of off your entire tuition!  Please note: this is no longer applicable to students registered with our ""early bird"" discount.  Please contact us at register@opententacademy.com for the discount code.

High speed internet access will create a strong foundation for your student’s participation. Students with dial-up access or without the proper hardware/software often struggle in online classes. https://www.opententacademy.com/virtual-courses/technical-requirements/ This link will provide you with the technical requirements needed for our virtual classrooms. Students should purchase a headset/microphone combo so that they can participate in class discussion. These can be purchased for starting around $15. Each class will also require the purchase of various books, which are listed on the syllabus that you can download from the Class Descriptions page. Because reading comprehension is a critical component of skill development, we do not recommend using an e-reader for any of the work. Studies have shown that such tools/technologies decreases student learning. Additionally, often certain passages or components of a book used by the teacher may not be present in other editions of a book. For this reason, we encourage you to obtain the exact resources required. Most of the can be found via Amazon. NOTE: Some teachers may assess a supply fee instead of a textbook. This fee may cover the cost of user licenses for your student’s access to various online materials including pdfs of textbooks, access to websites used for the class, or actual physical materials deemed necessary by the teacher. Such materials would be emailed to your student.

When you register for a class, you prevent other families from taking a seat. Registration means commitment. Teachers plan out their classes long before the class runs. Most of the work with teaching comes long before the student arrives in the classroom. When a parent registers a student, the teacher is expecting that student to be in class. To be fair to both our teachers and our families, we have come up with this withdrawal/refund plan. OTA's policy is clearly stated as follows: For Fall (and 20 or 30 week) Classes

1. If a student must withdraw from a course before August 1, AND the class is full with a "wait-list" for the class, AND your child’s seat can be filled by a student on the "wait-list", any tuition paid will be refunded, less an administration (processing) fee of $100.00.
2. If a student must withdraw from a course before August 1 AND if the seat cannot be filled, OR the withdrawal is made on or after August 1, the parent is responsible for the entire tuition amount due, and no refund will be issued.
3. If a student must withdraw from a course once the class begins, there is no refund.

For Winter Classes

1. If a student must withdraw from a course before December 1, AND the class is full with a "wait-list" for the class, AND your child’s seat can be filled by a student on the "wait-list", any tuition paid will be refunded, less an administration (processing) fee of $100.00.
2. If a student must withdraw from a course before December 1, AND if the seat cannot be filled, OR the withdrawal is made on or after December 1, the parent is responsible for the entire tuition amount due, and no refund will be issued.
3. If a student must withdraw from a course once the class begins, there is no refund.

For Spring Classes

1. If a student must withdraw from a course before March 1, AND the class is full with a "wait-list" for the class, AND your child’s seat can be filled by a student on the "wait-list", any tuition paid will be refunded, less an administration (processing) fee of $100.00.
2. If a student must withdraw from a course before March 1, AND if the seat cannot be filled, OR the withdrawal is made on or after March 1, the parent is responsible for the entire tuition amount due, and no refund will be issued.
3. If a student must withdraw from a course once the class begins, there is no refund.

You will be in the “regular registration” fee period. This means you can no longer receive the "early bird" 20% off. The "early bird" discount is the best discount offered.

After March 15, OTA offers military discounts, multiple class discounts and sibling discounts. Please contact Eva at eva@opententacademy.com for more details.

Yes, we do! OTA offers a two week “early bird” discount! This is 20% off each class you register for. We highly suggest that you register early to take advantage of this amazing deal! After the ""early bird"" period, we offer additional discounts for multi class/multi siblings, military families, and returning students.   Please note that these additional discounts cannot be combined with each other, or used in conjunction with the 20% ""early bird"" discount. Please contact OTA at register@opententacademy.com for your discount code.

To register for a class, you need to click on the ADD TO CART button shown for each course, on the COURSES link. Parents will then need to completely fill out the registration form that pops up. Please also make sure to select the proper number of attendees/seats you will need for that course (which should be "1") from the drop-down menu. Please note that you will need to fill out one form per student per class. Upon completion of this step, parents will be redirected to our PayPal site for submitting payments. If you need special financial arrangements, please contact us at register@opententacademy.com, prior to registering for classes.

The short answer is, unfortunately, no. Once a class begins we cannot replace your seat. Each lesson builds on the previous lesson. Since students can’t enroll mid-year, your child’s seat cannot be replaced. However, you will have access to the class notes and recordings so you can have your child work at their own pace.