For families
Enrollment policy.
Version 2026-11-06.1 · November 6, 2026
Online checkout is not open yet. The physical book and U.S. or international postage are included in tuition. Before you can pay, Hawthorne must finish the delivery and registration setup and confirm preparation requirements for your selected seminar. These business terms do not themselves reserve a place.
Enrollment and payment
This policy covers Hawthorne’s six-week seminar bookings. Each seminar includes six weekly, 45-minute live meetings, with up to six scholars in each cohort. Fees are per child, per seminar, in US dollars. Regular tuition is $475. The qualifying first-seminar Founders Circle price is $190, and a subsequent $475 seminar is $285 while that child’s 40% benefit applies.
The physical book and U.S. or international postage are included in tuition. There is no additional book or postage charge. Provide one authorized delivery address for your family’s registration and the full name to print on each child’s package. Packages are addressed to a parent or guardian by default. A package may be addressed to a child only when their parent or guardian supplies the child’s full recipient name and explicitly permits that use. Before you pay, we will also provide the confirmed meeting dates and time, preparation requirements, any other materials to obtain, and the applicable enrollment policies. This policy does not invent an additional materials charge or a tax amount.
A parent or guardian completes enrollment. A place is confirmed when you accept an offered place, acknowledge the policies, and we receive full payment. We will send written confirmation. A delay in sending that confirmation does not change the date we received your completed enrollment and payment.
Payment is in full. Each seminar is a separate purchase: there is no subscription, automatic renewal, or obligation to purchase another seminar. An inquiry, email signup, or an unpaid registration draft does not reserve a place or establish Founders Circle eligibility.
If you cancel your enrollment
Please tell us as soon as possible if your plans change.
| When we receive your cancellation | Refund of the seminar fee paid |
|---|---|
| At least 14 days before the first meeting | 100% |
| At least seven days but fewer than 14 days before the first meeting | 50% |
| Fewer than seven days before the first meeting, or after the seminar begins | No refund under the standard cancellation schedule |
Deadlines are measured back from the scheduled start time of the first meeting, using Central Time, America/Chicago. For a Tuesday meeting at 11 a.m., for example, the full-refund deadline is 11 a.m. two Tuesdays earlier; the half-refund deadline is 11 a.m. one Tuesday earlier.
Refunds are based on the amount actually paid. Half of a $190 payment is $95; half of a $285 payment is $142.50. We do not deduct an additional cancellation or payment-processing fee from a refund owed under this policy.
For serious illness or a family emergency, contact us to discuss whether a transfer or another exception is possible. Exceptions are considered individually and are not guaranteed. This does not affect any refund you are otherwise entitled to receive.
Moving to another seminar
You may request one transfer without a transfer fee, provided we receive the request at least seven days before the original seminar begins. The new seminar must have an available place, be suitable for the same child, and be scheduled to begin within six months of the original start date.
We must confirm the new place in writing. The original booking remains in place until then. If no suitable transfer is available, you may keep the original booking or cancel. For that cancellation, we use the date and time of your initial transfer request, so our response time does not reduce your refund.
Your payment moves to the new seminar at the original booking rate, with no additional seminar fee for this transfer. A qualifying $190 or $285 booking therefore keeps its original rate even if the Founders Circle benefit has since expired. A transfer does not create another first-seminar discount or extend the benefit’s expiry.
Transferring does not restore refund rights that had already expired. If you later cancel the transferred booking, the refund on the amount carried over is the lower of:
- The refund available when you first requested the transfer; or
- The refund available under the cancellation schedule for the new seminar.
For example, transferring a $190 booking ten days before its start preserves a maximum cash refund of $95 on that payment, even if the new seminar is months away.
The transfer option applies to the same enrolled child. A sibling or another child needs a separate enrollment at their independently applicable rate; the original booking remains subject to its cancellation terms. Places and Founders Circle benefits cannot be sold or transferred to another child. After a seminar begins, routine transfers are not available.
Missed meetings
The fee reserves a place for the full six-week seminar. A child’s absence, late arrival, or early departure does not create a refund, credit, or replacement meeting. This also applies when an individual family cannot join because of its device or internet connection.
Please let us know about an absence. We can identify the reading or preparation that will help your child return to the conversation. We do not provide seminar recordings or individual make-up lessons for missed meetings, and attendance in another cohort is not guaranteed.
If the problem affects Hawthorne’s ability to deliver the seminar, the following policy applies instead.
If Hawthorne cancels or changes a seminar
If we cancel a seminar before it begins, including because a group cannot run, you may choose a full refund or an available alternative seminar. You do not have to accept a credit or transfer.
If we cancel an individual meeting, we will offer a replacement. If we cannot provide one, or the proposed replacement time does not work for your family, we will refund the canceled meeting’s share of the fee.
If we discontinue a seminar after it begins, we will refund all undelivered meetings. The calculation is the fee actually paid multiplied by the number of undelivered meetings, divided by six, with the combined refund rounded to the nearest cent. For example, if four of six meetings remain undelivered, a $190 booking receives $126.67; a $285 booking receives $190.
If we materially change the confirmed schedule and your family cannot attend, you may withdraw and receive a refund for all remaining, undelivered meetings. Before the seminar begins, that means a full refund. These remedies also apply to interruptions that prevent Hawthorne from delivering the service, including instructor illness or a failure of our teaching platform.
A cancellation or schedule change by Hawthorne does not remove that child’s existing Founders Circle eligibility. Its fixed expiry remains January 1, 2028.
Founders Circle offer
Each eligible child receives 60% off their first seminar, once per child: $190 instead of the regular $475, saving $285. After that qualifying purchase, the child receives 40% off all subsequent seminars and Deep Dives until the benefit expires January 1, 2028. A subsequent seminar with regular tuition of $475 is $285. This policy does not set a regular price, duration, or cancellation schedule for a Deep Dive.
To qualify, accept an offered place, acknowledge the enrollment policies, and complete full payment for that child’s first seminar before December 25, 2026, Central Time. A purchase made on December 25 is after this cutoff. A payment or confirmation delayed solely by Hawthorne after you completed the required steps on time will not disqualify you. A failed or incomplete payment does not qualify.
Eligibility belongs to the individual child. Each sibling must qualify independently before the deadline to receive their own benefit. There is no additional sibling discount or household entitlement. Benefits cannot be sold, shared, or transferred. Email signup alone does not confer membership or qualify a child for the offer. These discount levels will not be offered again.
The confirmation will identify the child, the qualifying enrollment date, and the January 1, 2028 expiry. Additional seminars for that child must be booked and paid for before expiry. A seminar booked and paid for before expiry may begin afterward, including in the following spring, provided it is already on Hawthorne’s published schedule. There is no required minimum number of purchases. Each booking depends on a suitable place being available; eligibility does not reserve seats or guarantee particular future seminars or times.
The offer applies to eligible seminar and Deep Dive enrollment fees. The physical seminar book and U.S. or international postage are included in tuition. Any other materials and any applicable taxes must be disclosed for the actual booking before payment. The 40% offer is a discount, not a promise that future regular prices will remain unchanged.
Transfers and later purchases do not restart the benefit or change its fixed expiry. If you voluntarily cancel and receive a full refund of all seminar fees paid for that child before they have begun a seminar, that child’s Founders Circle eligibility ends. A partial refund or approved transfer does not end it. A sibling’s bookings, attendance, or refunds do not determine another child’s eligibility.
Cancellation by Hawthorne is an exception: the affected child’s eligibility remains valid through its original fixed expiry, even if Hawthorne refunds their only booking. We do not retrospectively increase the price of a seminar already purchased at the applicable Founders Circle rate.
After expiry, new bookings use the rate available at that time. Nothing renews automatically.
Requests and refunds
Email contact@hawthorneinstitute.com, or reply to your enrollment confirmation email, to request a cancellation, transfer, or refund. Include the seminar and booking reference so we can locate the enrollment. For the voluntary cancellation schedule above, we use the time the request reaches the designated inbox, not the time we respond. We will confirm the outcome in writing.
We initiate refunds within ten business days of receiving a qualifying cancellation or refund request. If Hawthorne cancels a seminar outright, that period begins when we notify you of the cancellation; no separate refund request is needed unless you prefer an alternative seminar. A shorter period applies where required by law. Refunds go to the original payment method; the payment provider may take additional time to display them.
These policies do not limit rights that applicable law gives you. The version provided when you pay applies to that booking, and we will honor the Founders Circle benefit attached to the qualifying enrollment.