Academic Programs Catalog

General Information, Policies, Procedures and Regulations

Other Information


Fee Payment

All fees, tuition, and housing charges noted above except those in the sections labeled Advanced Payments and Deposits and Miscellaneous Fees and Deposits are due and payable upon issuance of a Billing Statement for the semester. The bill is only available online in the student portal. Paper bills are not mailed. Students will be notified by e-mail when the Billing Statement is available in the student portal. Please refer to the Student Accounts Web site at: https://ctlr.msu.edu/student-accounts for more detailed information. Payment may be made by electronic check/ACH or credit card through the student portal student.msu.edu. Payments may also be made by check or money order payable to Michigan State University. Payments made with Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express credit cards are only accepted via the web and carry a convenience fee. Checks are accepted subject to collection. Wire payments are facilitated through our partnership with Flywire. More information can be found in the payment portal for Flywire payments. Most 529 payments can be made electronically in the payment portal.


Payment Plan

Students may choose to enroll in a payment plan to assist with making their payments. A $40 nonrefundable enrollment fee is required with the first payment. For fall semester, a 25% down payment is required at the time of enrollment, plus the $40 payment plan enrollment fee. The remaining balance will be paid in three equal amounts over the course of the semester (if enrolled by a certain date). For spring and summer semesters, a 33% down payment is required at the time of enrollment, plus the $40 payment plan fee. The remaining balance will be paid in two equal amounts. (if enrolled by certain date). 

Fall Semester

Initial Payment due date August 23
2nd installment due date October 1
3rd installment due date November 1
4th installment due date December 1

Spring Semester

Initial Payment due date February 1
2nd installment due date March 1
3rd installment due date April 1

Summer Semester

Initial Payment due date May 9
2nd installment due date June 6
3rd installment due date July 1

A $30 late payment charge will apply whenever any payment is made after the due date. Students will be held from enrolling for future semesters whenever current semester payment plan payments are past due. Failure to make deferred payments on a timely basis may also result in the loss of the opportunity to defer payments.

Students receiving  VA chapter 31 or 33 funding will not be subject to certain penalties, including the assessment of late fees, the denial of access to classes, libraries, or other institutional facilities, or the requirement that a covered individual borrow additional funds, due to the individual’s inability to meet his or her financial obligations to the institution due to the delayed disbursement funding from the VA under chapter 31 or 33.


Financial Aid

All financial aid (except College Work Study) which has been authorized at the time the MSU Billing Statement is produced will appear on the bill as Anticipated Aid. 
Actual financial aid payments are not made until ten days before the first class day of the semester.  Until that time, aid which students are eligible to receive will be listed on the bill and will reduce the amount owed.

Aid that does not appear as Anticipated on the account may require additional actions in the Student Financial Planning (SFP) financial aid system. Students or authorized guests may visit the portal at https://student.msu.edu/splash.html to view requested documents or actions.

Eligibility for each award is monitored during the semester and may change due to changes in enrollment as of the time it is credited to the account through the end of the semester.  Refer to the Office of Financial Aid web page at https://finaid.msu.edu/ for further information on types of aid and the requirements for each.

If the total financial aid credited to the account exceeds the amount owed, the student may be entitled to a refund.  Refunds are sent via Direct Deposit by the Student Accounts Office according to their calendar and students can contact that office for more information.


Books

Costs for books vary widely for various academic programs.  The average costs for undergraduates is estimated to be $690 per semester.  For graduates, the cost estimate is $881 per semester.  Graduate/professional costs vary from law ($1536 per semester) to $970 per term for first year medical and veterinary students.

Financial Aid and Repeats
Federal financial aid regulations limit the number of times a student may repeat a course and receive financial aid for that course.  The following guidelines apply to students eligible for federal aid.

  1. A student may receive aid when repeating a course that was previously failed (received a 0.0 or No Pass) multiple times.
  2. Once a student passes a class, they can only receive aid for retaking that course one additional time, regardless of the grade earned for that additional attempt. Any subsequent attempts will not be eligible for aid.
  3. If a student retakes a course that is not aid eligible, a recalculation of aid is done to exclude the credits for the repeated course.  Students are notified by the Office of Financial Aid if their aid needs to be reduced.
  4. A course that is dropped is not considered an attempt for purposes of this policy.

Returned Items

[Includes rejected electronic check/Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments]

A $25.00 returned item service fee will be assessed to a student whose ACH/Check payment is returned from their financial institution to MSU unpaid.
In addition to the returned item service charge, the university reserves the right to take one or more of the following actions:

  1. Place an immediate enrollment and financial hold.
  2. Block the student or other authorized guest from making an ACH payment towards a student's account when three payments made towards a student's account have been returned within one year. The student will no longer have ACH payment as an available method of payment on their student account for one year from the date of the first returned payment.
  3. Transfer the debt to a collection agency.
  4. File a complaint with the police for possible prosecution.
  5. Refer the student to the Judicial Affairs Office for disciplinary action.
  6. Bring civil action against the individual for the amount of a returned check/ACH not redeemed within 30 days of the date of the notification letter and $250 in costs. In addition, the court could rule that you must also pay the greater of $100 or two times the amount of the returned check/ACH. If you pay the total amount due within 30 days, no civil action will be taken against you.