My question, after thinking about some of this is, has anyone actually enrolled in a college on a credit card, just for the purpose of dropping-out before classes start, to get a cash refund and the miles? Which college was this that offered 100% refunds in cash?

In California, here are my thoughts for public colleges. All might give cash refunds for at least part of your fees, if only because they process so many partial refunds, many months after the initial charge. It's probably just easier administratively to do that.:

University of California: Highest costs, but forget it. A very competitive university system to get in and stay in. I couldn't imagine a student doing this to get miles and then later thrown-out for making no progress toward a degree in a timely manner.

California State University: Medium costs (where I graduated from). Some campuses are harder to get into than others, but more relaxed requirements than the Univerisity of California. More tolerant to students who drop-out of classes and keep returning, but in my CSUN catalog, it does explain they can put you on probation, or eventually disqualify you, if you keep doing this. One could also enroll via university extension, but Extended Learning departments are run more like a business, so they might be more likely to submit refunds back through the credit card company.

California Community Colleges: Only $11 a unit, plus maybe $30 in student fees. These fees are sure to go up next semester, because of California's budget woes. But even if you registered for 20 units each semester (a huge load of courses) and dropped-out before the term started, the most this transaction would come to is about $250. Hardly worth it, even if you could get all your money back in cash. And it is true signing up for classes you don't plan take, may prevent another needy student from getting in, since you've taken up a slot. Even if you did enroll in the least popular courses, still there are easier ways to earn miles, than waste a college's resources doing this nonsense.

[This message has been edited by burgerwars (edited 02-05-2003).]