Course Refund Policy


We attempt to make its programs always affordable for those from any economic background. To do this, we provide adjustments based on cost of living, income and financial support, and offer discounts and fee waivers when those are not sufficient. 

Our programs rely heavily on peer to peer interaction, and so we try to ensure that people are knowledgeable on the program before entering, and that they stay in the program after registering. For this reason, we do not offer refunds or course cancellations after our matching date, except for reasons outlined below. 

Refunds may only be requested through our cancellation and refund request form. Refunds will be processed by our team within one week and typically take 5-7 business days to post to the account. We cannot speed up this process as it is managed by our payment provider, Stripe.

We offer refunds under the following circumstances:

Up Until Matching Date
Any reason, including reasons below

Between Matching Date and Course Start
A significant change in financial status or circumstances, such as loss of financial support by your host institution

After Course Start
Severe illness or death
A pod dynamics issue not resolvable by the Ombuds team within 2 days
Deportation or forced and unanticipated emigration

We explicitly do not offer refunds for the following after the matching date:
Course is too difficult or takes more time than expected
Lab, work, or research project is suddenly available and student wasn’t sure it would be
Pod dynamics issue that was resolved
Student error in matching time (should have submitted a pod swap request before the course started)