The Office of the Bursar is responsible for maintaining all student accounts pertaining to acceptance fees, tuition billing, charges, payments, and refunds.

Tuition Statement

Account statements are prepared every month. The due date is indicated on the statement. Billing begins in early August for fall semester, early January for spring semester, and May for the summer semester. Billing Summer Session II students usually begins in June.

Students will receive notification via their Penn State email account when their statement is available to view/pay in LionPATH. Residence hall charges are included on the statement, if applicable. Paper statements are not mailed.

It is very important that students regularly check their Penn State email account. The Office of the Bursar, as well as other Penn State departments, will communicate important information to students through their Penn State email account.

Financial Responsibility Agreement

Students must sign a Financial Responsibility Agreement (FRA) before enrolling in classes each semester. The FRA is a student’s promise to take financial responsibility for payment of their account.

Paying Tuition

The eCheck option is a fast and convenient online method to pay the tuition statement directly from a personal checking account drawn on a U.S. bank. There is no charge to pay by eCheck. Online credit card payments (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express) are also accepted. A service fee will be charged for debit/credit card payments. eCheck and credit card payments are posted to the student account immediately. 

If you want to mail a check, a payment stub should be printed and mailed with the payment to Penn State. Please allow seven to ten business days for the payment to be received and posted to the student account. A late fee applies if payment is not posted to the student’s account by the due date indicated on the statement.

Payment Plans

Penn State offers an Installment Payment Plan every semester. Enrollment in the plan allows students/authorized payers to pay the semester charges (tuition, fees, and room and meals, if applicable) over four monthly installments in the fall and spring semesters, and three monthly installments in the summer. There is a $45 non-refundable enrollment fee per semester, which covers administrative costs. The payments can be made with eCheck or credit card (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express).

The link to enroll online in the payment plan is available in LionPATH once the first billing statement for the semester is issued. Students/authorized payers can enroll in the plan online with an initial payment of ¼ of the balance for fall or spring, or ⅓ of the balance for summer. Enrolling after the first installment due date will require an initial payment of ½ of the balance for fall or spring, or ⅔ of the balance for summer (subject to change). Please check the Bursar’s website for actual installment dates.

Additional Student Aid

The Anticipated Financial Aid section on a student’s tuition statement reflects the most current known available financial aid. Students with University scholarships, grants, or loans that are not reflected on their statement should contact the office of Student Financial Aid.

Outside Scholarship Information

Many students will receive scholarships from various organizations, agencies, and foundations as they graduate from high school. To reflect these outside awards on the student’s tuition statement, send the scholarship checks as early as possible to the address below. Checks must be made payable to Penn State. (If a check is made payable to Penn State and the student, then it must be signed by the student for processing.) Please include the student’s nine-digit PSU ID in the memo line.

Penn State
Office of the Bursar
Attn: External Awards
109 Shields Building
664 Curtin Road
University Park, PA 16802

eRefund

A refund will be issued if there is a credit balance on the student account. eRefund is an electronic deposit of a refund into the student’s bank account, and it is the fastest and most convenient delivery of refunds to students. Students who do not enroll in eRefund will receive a refund check sent by mail to their home address on record. (International students will have their refund check mailed to their local address.)

To enroll in eRefund follow these steps: 

  1. Login to your Student Home Base in LionPATH
  2. Click on "My Finances" on top of the page
  3. Select "Manage My Account/Make A Payment" to get to your Student Account Dashboard
  4. Scroll down on the Overview Page until you see the "Sign up for direct deposit refunds!" box, and click on "Sign up". Complete the steps and required bank information to enroll.

eRefund is only available to students. Parents receive Parent PLUS loan refunds by paper check. See the Refund Policy for more information.

Tuition Assessment & Planning

Penn State assesses tuition based on the student’s campus, college, major, residency classification, credit load, and semester classification. Once an undergraduate student completes 59.1 or more total credits (which includes credits earned through advanced placement or transferred from another institution), the student is considered to have obtained junior/senior status at Penn State. The Board of Trustees approves the tuition and fees for the academic year in mid-July each year. All costs of attendance can be viewed at the University Budget Office’s Tuition and Fees Schedules web page after selecting the campus location.

By law, Penn State representatives can only coorespond or speak about the student account with the student and individuals designated as Authorized Payers by the student. Be sure to ask your student to share any pertinent student account information with you or grant you Authorized Payer access to their student account in LionPATH. Learn more about FERPA and student confidentiality.

Remind your student to: