Tuition, Fees and Payments Overview

Students should also refer to the webpage for the office of Student Accounts to get current information about tuition and fees.

Questions about Residency status and Tuition Surcharges for coursework exceeding 140 attempted hours should be referred to the Office of the Registrar.

Students should refer to the webpage for the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid for current information about financial assistance to attend the university.

Financial Responsibility

All charges for tuition and fees are due and payable at the time of registration, unless the student is enrolled in the university payment plan administered and managed by the Office of Student Accounts & Cashiering  or has approved financial aid. Nonpayment of tuition and fees shall result in classes being deleted.  Grades and transcripts are held if there is an unpaid balance.

Additionally, the student will not be allowed to participate in registration and will forfeit eligibility to participate in the Payment Plan for subsequent semesters. Work-study and work awards are paid as earned and cannot be used as an extension towards registration and entrance fees.

Payments

All payments (Cashier Check/Money Order) should be made payable to Winston-Salem State University. Please indicate on your cashier’s  check or money order for whom payment is being made. Personal Checks are NOT accepted in payment of tuition and fees. Other acceptable methods of payment in office are credit cards, debit cards(Visa/MasterCard). Online payments can be made by debit/credit cards (Visa or MasterCard) or electronic check. Electronic check payments  not honored by the payee’s bank will result in immediate reversal of the payment. A processing fee ($25.00) will be charged for each electronic  check returned. Failure to comply with this regulation will result in the cancellation of university services. The university reserves the right not to honor an electronic check after one has been returned as uncollectible.

Undergraduates Tuition and Fees

In-State and Out-of-State Tuition and Fees are posted on the university’s Student Accounts homepage.  Note that health insurance is optional with proof of health insurance coverage.

University boarding costs are posted on the home page of Housing and Residence Life.

University Fees are subject to change without prior notification.

Tuition Surcharge

Pursuant to the requirements for North Carolina General Statute §116-143.7, effective for the Fall 2010 semester and thereafter all undergraduate students will be subject to a 50% tuition surcharge for all credit hours attempted in excess of 140 or 110% of the hours required by the student’s academic program, whichever is greater. 

Students subject to surcharge:

• Students earning a first baccalaureate degree in a program that requires no more than 128 credit hours will be subject to the surcharge after having completed eight or more regular semesters at any institution.  Students pursuing programs requiring more than 128 hours will be subject to the surcharge only after having completed 10 or more regular semesters.   Work completed in summer sessions or off-campus extension will not count towards the eight or ten semesters.
• For students earning a first baccalaureate degree program that requires no more than 128 credit hours, the surcharge shall be applied to all counted credit hours in excess of 140.  For students earning a first baccalaureate degree in a program that requires more than 128 credit hours, the surcharge shall be applied to all counted credit hours that exceed 110 percent of the hours required for the degree.
• Students pursuing multiple degrees will be subject to the surcharge for all counted credit hours in excess of 140 or 110% of that required for the degree(s), whichever is greater.  Hours required for the degree(s) are defined as the number of hours required for the primary degree plus all hours completed that are creditable towards the additional degree(s) but are non-degree-creditable towards the primary degree, as defined by the student’s Degree Audit.
• Students pursuing a baccalaureate degree other than their first will be subject to the surcharge for all counted credit hours in excess of 140 or 110% of that required for the additional degree.

WAIVER

Upon application by a student, the tuition surcharge shall be waived if the student demonstrates that any of the following have substantially disrupted or interrupted the student’s pursuit of a degree:

• A military service obligation
• Serious medical debilitation
• A short-term or long-term disability
• Other extraordinary hardship

Special fees and charges can be made at any time with the approval of proper authorities.

Application Fee

A non-refundable application fee must accompany each application for admission.  The application fee is posted on the home page of the Office Admissions.

Residence Deposit

An application fee is required to validate the contract for residence hall occupancy.  See Housing and Residence Life’s home page for the current fee.

Residence Status for Tuition Purposes

The basis for determining the appropriate tuition charge rests upon whether a student is a resident or a nonresident for tuition purposes. Each student must make a statement as to the length of his or her residence in North Carolina, with assessment by the institution of that statement to be conditioned by the following.

Residence. To qualify as a resident for tuition purposes, a person must become a legal resident and remain a legal resident for at least twelve months immediately prior to classification. Thus, there is a distinction between legal residence and residence for tuition purposes. Furthermore, twelve months legal residence means more than simple abode in North Carolina. In particular, it means maintaining a domicile (permanent home of indefinite duration) as opposed to “maintaining a mere temporary residence or abode incident to enrollment in an institution of higher education.” The burden of establishing facts which justify classification of a student as a resident entitled to in-state tuition rates is on the applicant for such classification, who must show his or her entitlement by the preponderance (the greater part) of the residentiary information.

Initiative. Being classified a resident for tuition purposes is contingent on the student’s seeking such status and providing all information that the institution may require in making the determination.

Parents’ Domicile. If an individual, irrespective of age, has living parent(s) or court-appointed guardian of the person, the domicile of such parent(s) or guardian is, prima facie, the domicile of the individual; but this prima facie evidence of the individual’s domicile may or may not be sustained by other information. Further, non domiciliary status of parents is not deemed prima facie evidence of the applicant child’s status if the applicant has lived (though not necessarily legally resided) in North Carolina for the five years preceding enrollment or re-registration.

Effect of Marriage. Marriage alone does not prevent a person from becoming or continuing to be a resident for tuition purposes, nor does marriage in any circumstance ensure that a person will become or continue to be a resident for tuition purposes. Marriage and the legal residence of one’s spouse are, however, relevant information in determining residentiary intent. Furthermore, if both a husband and his wife are legal residents of North Carolina and if one of them has been a legal resident longer than the other, then the longer duration may be claimed by either spouse in
meeting the twelve-month requirement for in-state tuition status.

Military Personnel. A North Carolinian who serves outside the State in the Armed Forces does not lose North Carolina domicile simply by reason of such service. Students from the military may prove retention or establishment of residence by reference, as in other cases, to residentiary acts accompanied by residentiary intent.

In addition, a separate North Carolina statute affords tuition rate benefits to certain military personnel and their dependents even though not qualifying for the in-state tuition rate by reason of twelve months legal residence in North Carolina. Members of the Armed Services, while stationed in and concurrently living in North Carolina, may be charged a tuition rate lower than the out of- state tuition rate to the extent that the total of entitlements for application tuition costs available from the federal government, plus certain amounts based under a statutory formula upon the in-state tuition rate, is a sum less than the out-of-state tuition rate for the pertinent enrollment. A dependent relative of a service member stationed in North Carolina is eligible to be charged the in-state tuition rate while the dependent relative is living in North Carolina with the service member and if the dependent relative has met any requirement of the Selective Service System applicable to the dependent relative. These tuition benefits may be enjoyed only if the applicable requirements for admission have been met; these benefits alone do not provide the basis for receiving those derivative benefits under the provisions of the residence classification statute reviewed elsewhere in this summary.

Grace Period. If a person (1) has been a bona fide legal resident of the required duration, (2) has consequently been classified a resident for tuition purposes, and (3) has subsequently lost North Carolina legal residence while enrolled at a public institution of higher education, that person may continue to enjoy the instate tuition rate for a grace period of twelve months measured from the date on which North Carolina legal residence was lost. If the twelve months ends during an academic term for which the person is enrolled at a State institution of higher education, the grace period extends, in addition, to the end of that term. The fact of marriage to one who continues living outside North Carolina does not by itself cause loss of legal residence marking the beginning of the grace period.

Minors. Minors (persons under 18 years of age) usually have the domicile of their parents, but the residence classification statute in determining residence for tuition purposes recognizes certain special cases.

1. If a minor’s parents live apart, the minor’s domicile is deemed to be North Carolina for the time period(s) that either parent, as a North Carolina legal resident, may claim and does claim the minor as a tax dependent, even if other law or judicial act assigns the minor’s domicile outside North Carolina. A minor thus deemed to be a legal resident will not, upon achieving majority before enrolling at an institution of higher education, lose North Carolina legal residence if that person (1) upon becoming an adult “acts, to the extent that the person’s degree of actual emancipation permits, in a manner consistent with bona fide legal residence in North Carolina” and (2) “begins enrollment at an institution of higher education not later than the fall academic term following completion of education prerequisite to admission at such institution.”
2. If a minor has lived for five or more consecutive years with relatives (other than parents) who are domiciled in North Carolina and if the relatives have functioned during this time as if they were personal guardians, the minor will be deemed a resident for tuition purposes for an enrolled term commencing immediately after at least five years in which these circumstances have existed. If under this consideration a minor is deemed to be a resident for tuition purposes immediately prior to his or her eighteenth birthday, that person on achieving majority will be deemed a legal resident of North Carolina of at least twelve months duration. This provision acts to confer in-state tuition status even in the face of other provisions of law to the contrary; however, a person deemed a resident of twelve months duration pursuant to this provision continues to be a legal resident of the State only so long as he or she does not abandon North Carolina domicile.

Lost but Regained Domicile. If a student ceases enrollment at or graduates from an institution of higher education while classified a resident for tuition purposes and then both abandons and reacquires North Carolina domicile within a twelve-month period, that person, if he or she continues to maintain the reacquired domicile into re-enrollment at an institution of higher education, may re-enroll at the in-state tuition rate without having to meet the usual twelve-month duration requirement. However, any one person may receive the benefit of the provision only once.

Change of Status. A student admitted to initial enrollment in an institution (or permitted to re-enroll following an absence from the institutional program which involved a formal withdrawal from enrollment) must be classified by the admitting institution either as a resident or as a nonresident for tuition purposes prior to actual enrollment. A residence status classification once assigned (and finalized pursuant to any appeal properly taken) may be changed thereafter (with corresponding change in billing rates) only at intervals corresponding with the established primary divisions of the academic year.

Transfer Students. When a student transfers from one North Carolina public institution of higher education to another, he or she is treated as a new student by the institution to which he or she is transferring and must be assigned an initial residence status classification for tuition purposes.

Refund of Tuition and Fees after Withdrawal from the University

A student who officially withdraws from the university on or before the first day of classes will receive 100% refund of tuition and fees. A student withdrawing after the first day of classes will receive a pro rata refund as follows:

Exception: Charges are refundable by administrative action on a prorated basis for the unexpired portion of the term for the following reasons: death of the student, withdrawal for adequate medical reasons as certified by the University student health center or family doctor, or death in the immediate family which necessitates student withdrawal. Appropriate documentation must be provided to the Registrar. No adjustment of fees will be processed for students dismissed or suspended from the institution for disciplinary reasons. Room and board refunds will be prorated on a weekly basis for the unused weeks remaining in the semester through the thirteenth (13th) week, as of the actual week of withdrawal.

The Director of Housing and Residence Life, in consultation with the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, will have the authority to decide whether students who have entered into a contractual agreement to live in WSSU residence halls, and have been suspended or dismissed from the University, will receive a refund.

The date of withdrawal from the residence hall shall be the date that the student returns his/her keys to the Residence Hall Administrator and/or the Office of Residence Life. The date of withdrawal for the purposes of board plan refunds is the actual date the withdrawal form is signed by the Ram Card Administrator, at which time the Ram Card is collected and deactivated. Note: No refunds will be given for withdrawal after the thirteenth (13th) week of the semester.

Status Changes from Full-Time to Part-Time Student

Students who drop below full-time status will receive financial credit for courses dropped on or before the add period ends. No credit will be given for classes dropped after this date.