New Tuition Policy Reason

Reasons for the change in policy

We need our students to come to BYU financially prepared as well as academically prepared. Students who come to BYU without first taking care of their financial affairs spend too much time the first few days of class paying bills, arranging for loans and resolving past due financial obligations. Students should be spending this time concentrating on their new studies for the Semester/Term. All of these financial activities can be taken care of weeks or months in advance. The university also functions much more efficiently when students have taken care of their financial affairs before the first week of class. Some specific benefits of the new policy include:

Moving the due date to seven calendar days prior to the first day of class will help both students and the university by:

• Providing an incentive for students to get their financial affairs in order prior to the start of class so that they can focus on the demands of school.
• Spreading the demand on administrative offices and computer systems away from the first few days of class. This should reduce the size of lines to pay bills and speak with financial personnel. It will also help improve response time on the university’s various web sites.
• Deleting students’ classes for non-payment will help students who are temporarily unprepared financially for a BYU education avoid the accumulation of debt. This will also help students avoid significant collection charges imposed by collection agencies.
• Deleting students’ classes for non-payment will help university expense related to students who attend but do not pay for their classes.