Who Pays for This?
**Due to the unprecedented Spring 2020, situations and circumstances continue to evolve daily. Please start all your planning for any event this spring and summer by first checking here for the updates directly from UNF. Most recently, USF canceled some fees for summer courses but now have added other fees. Each course per credit is now $27. Most classes at USF are 3 credits, so the minimum charge would be $81. However, USF has stated that the total cost of tuition will not increase since other fees have been removed.**
There is no denying that college tuition, itself, is a huge expense; however, on top of the cost, HaveUHeard that some classes have extra fees that may or may not be covered by some scholarships or prepaid programs?
At USF, there are several fees associated with various programs that are not fully covered by prepaid scholarships such as Florida Prepaid or Bright Futures. These fees are often upwards of $600 on top of the school’s credit hour tuition rate. The Florida Prepaid scholarship only covers credit hour rates, so that means that you will have to come out of pocket for other fees unless you receive scholarships or financial aid from other sources.
Not only are there fees that are automatically due just for attending the university, but there are also additional costs associated with certain classes as well. For example, if you are enrolled in an online course, you will be required to pay an additional $50 per credit hour for that class. So, for a 3 credit hour online course, you will have to pay an additional $150 on top of USF’s $347.91 per credit hour fee. There are also fees associated with taking classes that require computer lab use (yes, even if you have your own laptop and don’t use the school computers). Here is a complete list of auxiliary fees.
For those students fortunate to be a Florida Academic Scholar (100%) or Florida Medallion Scholar (75%) and have Florida Prepaid, there is often excess funds remaining after all other charges are deducted. This gets deposited or mailed to your students so they can use that for whatever they want, it can be college living expenses, meals, and yes, the auxiliary fees. If you have financial aid that pays your entire cost of attendance and gives you a refund check for the remaining balance, you may never be aware of the additional you’re being charged. For a detailed breakdown of your tuition and all costs, visit the tuition and fee statement on OASIS.
And then there is excess hours surcharge which established what is commonly referred to as an “Excess Credit Hour Surcharge.” The bill requires universities to add a surcharge to each credit hour taken in excess of the total number of credit hours required to complete the degree being pursued. A bill just past that increases the credit hours a student entering a state university in the summer term of 2019 or thereafter may earn, from 110 percent to 120 percent of the degree program, before being required to pay the surcharge. Also, for a student who changes degree programs, the bill requires the university to adjust the excess credit hour threshold only if the number of credit hours required to complete the new degree program exceeds that of the original degree program.
Under Florida law, the following credit hours count towards excess credit hours: Failed courses, Hours dropped after the University’s drop/add period, Courses from which a student withdraws. Repeated courses. Exception: repeated courses for which the student has paid the repeat course surcharge as provided in Section 1009.285, Florida Statutes. All credit earned at another institution and accepted for transfer and applied toward the baccalaureate degree program. As an example, if your student had 2 excess hours, they would be charged 2.2 x the current base tuition rate. That now changes to 120% which will lower the charge.
Written by Jordan Philyor, USF Intern
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