Understanding University Tuition and Fees: A Comprehensive Guide

Navigating the costs associated with higher education can be complex. This article aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of university tuition and fees, particularly focusing on the specifics of Kennesaw State University (KSU) and Cleveland State University (CSU), while also touching upon graduate assistantship funding at Virginia Tech. The goal is to break down what these costs entail and how they support the overall student experience.

Tuition and Fee Structures at Kennesaw State University (KSU)

As a member institution of the University System of Georgia, Kennesaw State University’s tuition and fee increases are effective with the Fall semester. The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia (BOR/USG) usually approves all tuition and fee schedules for the upcoming year during their April meeting. These approved tuition and fee schedules will be made available upon receipt by Kennesaw State University.

Specific Fees at KSU and Their Purposes

KSU, like many universities, charges various fees to support specific services and programs. Here's a breakdown:

Athletic Fee: This fee supports the Intercollegiate Athletics program, which consists of eighteen team sports. The fee also supports athletic scholarships and provides students with a valid student ID, access to free admission to all regular season home games.
Health Fee: The Health Fee is used to provide health services for KSU students. Due to the University's growth and the intensification of national standards in campus health services, KSU has entered into a long-term agreement with WellStar Medical Group, LLC to manage and operate KSU's Student Health Services operations. WellStar provides professional medical staffing and resources to offer full-time, full-service healthcare and consultations to students for preventative and acute medical care.
Parking Fee: The Parking Fee is used to support the operations, debt services, maintenance, infrastructure, and surface parking on the two campuses.
Recreation Center Fee: The Recreation Center Fee is used to manage and operate the programs, services and facilities conducted by the Department of Sports and Recreation that promote physical, social and leadership development through sport and recreation activities within a fun and supportive environment. It is also a funding source to pay debt services for the Dr. Betty L. Siegel Student Recreation and Activities Center on the Kennesaw campus.
Transportation Fee: The Transportation Fee is used to provide and promote alternative transportation options for campus, including the Big Owl Bus campus shuttle system, bicycling infrastructure, and programs supporting regional transit. In 2016-2017, the university had eighteen transit vehicles, seven weekday bus routes, and real-time vehicle tracking. Specifically, the fee assists in paying for transit vehicles, transportation staff time, vehicle maintenance and repair, insurance, gasoline, transit technology, uniforms, training, and transportation infrastructure.
Sports and Recreation Parks Fee: The Sports and Recreation Parks Fee covers the facility bond payment, insurance, required Renewal and Replacement funding, and basic operational expenses for the 88-acre Sports and Recreation Park. The park is used by students for intramural, club sports, student activities, academic classes, general recreation, and athletic activities. Operational costs include contracted services for landscaping; field and turf maintenance; pest control; heating and air conditioning (HVAC); custodial services; and utilities. Maintenance and general operating supplies are also paid for by this fund. Event expenses for non-university events are not paid from this fund, these events must be self-sustaining.
Student Activity Fee: The Student Activity Fee provides financial support for the Kennesaw and Marietta campuses to enrich the co-curricular student experience and provide essential student services, leadership development opportunities, and student wages for student leader positions. This fee supports qualified Registered Student Organizations and University departments with a direct student impact through programming, events, and activities.
Technology Fee: The Technology Fee is primarily used to outfit and update classroom technology, fund life cycle replacement of technology in the student labs, and fund student technology support personnel. Purchases made using this fee are classroom technology including software applications, computers, overhead projectors, and smart boards.
Wellness Fee: The Wellness Fee is used to provide financial support for health promotion programs and services that address identified health needs and behavior risks of KSU students. These programs may include but are not limited to stress management, alcohol awareness, healthy relationships, sexual health, nutrition, cooking demonstrations, body image, CPR/AED/first aid, physical activity, and general wellness. The Wellness Fee was approved as part of the Recreation Center Fee for Fall 2005.
Online Learning Fee: Effective Fall 2024, an Online Learning Fee has been introduced for students exclusively enrolled in distance learning or off-campus courses, who do not concurrently take on-campus courses or reside on campus.

Housing and Dining Considerations

Kennesaw State University (KSU) Housing

Housing Preference Form: All students are required to submit the housing preference form.
Housing Waiver: Students can apply for a housing waiver only if they meet one of the conditions listed below and have submitted proper associated documentation at least 30 days before the posted move in date. Immediate family member (Mother, Father, Brother, Sister) within short distance of campus. Documentation required to prove relationship, proof of lease. Students may be asked for daily travel plans dependent upon distance to campus from leased apartment.
Assignment Process: Students are pre-assigned to an available unit after payments have posted and they are confirmed as cleared to arrive/register for classes. Communications regarding assignments are dependent on when payments are reflected on their account.
Roommate Preferences: Students can fill out the roommate preference form (created and sent out new each semester), but they are not guaranteed. As students are placed based on the time that they are cleared to register, all parties would have to be cleared to register to be assigned together.
Special Accommodations: Special accommodations can be made due to religious needs.

Cleveland State University (CSU) Housing and Dining

Housing Options: Domain and Reserve Square are the most common program managed housing options for undergraduate and graduate students.
Proximity to Campus: Reserve Square is about a block away from the West entrance to campus, at 13th and Chester. Students will be able to walk to campus from the Langston apartments and Reserve Square, which are both less than 1 km from most university buildings.
Transportation: There is also a free Trolley/Bus that runs up and down Euclid Street, between campus and Downtown Cleveland. It runs every ten minutes. Additionally, all CSU students are enrolled in the U-Pass program.
Housing Waiver: Students can apply for a housing waiver only if they meet one of the conditions listed below and have submitted proper associated documentation at least 30 days before the posted move in date. Immediate family member (Mother, Father, Brother, Sister) within short distance of campus. Documentation required to prove relationship, proof of lease. Students may be asked for daily travel plans dependent upon distance to campus from leased apartment.
Assignment Process: Students are pre-assigned to an available unit after payments have posted and they are confirmed as cleared to arrive/register for classes. Communications regarding assignments are dependent on when payments are reflected on their account.
Roommate Preferences: Students can fill out the roommate preference form (created and sent out new each semester), but they are not guaranteed. As students are placed based on the time that they are cleared to register, all parties would have to be cleared to register to be assigned together.
Special Accommodations: Special accommodations can be made due to religious needs.
Undergraduate Dining Plans: Students are automatically assigned the base plan, called the Weekly 5. Cleveland State does not have an official ‘wavier process,’ however, students can request accommodation based on allergies or restrictions. CSU has vegetarian options around campus, and some halal options. Dining plans are not available during summer terms. They are not required for new students in the summer term.
Graduate Dining Plans: Graduate students are enrolled in the Dining Dollar Debit for their first semester. For the cost of $1,000.00 USD, students receive $1,050.00 to spend at 11 locations across campus. This declining balance can be used to enter the dining hall, for on-campus restaurants, and grocery/convenience stores on campus. Cleveland State does not have an official ‘wavier process,’ however, students can request accommodation based on allergies or restrictions. CSU has vegetarian options around campus, and some halal options. Dining plans are not available during summer terms. They are not required for new students in the summer term.

Support for Students with Disabilities

In the United States, a federal (national) law protects people who have disabilities as they use public services, including educational settings. It is important that you know that this law exists and that even as an F1 student, you are protected by it. Your home country may not have a similar law. However, while in the US, you have the right to be protected by our law.

ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (P.L.

No qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity. For the purposes of the ADA, a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities of such individual. Examples are: caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, seeing, hearing, eating, sleeping, walking, standing, lifting, bending, speaking, breathing, learning, reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating, and working.

Disclosure and Support

No one in Global or at the University should ever ask or assume that a student has a disability. This is a student privacy issue. If you believe you fall into the category of “student with a disability,” you must communicate that to us. Once you do, we will not disclose this information to anyone without your permission.

Once a student communicates to any Global member that he or she has a disability, we have a duty to assist the student organize services. We will communicate to the Office of Disability Services that the student has offered information about his/her disability status. We will not disclose the nature of the disability, only that the student has disclosed. With the student’s permission, we will also communicate with CISP and/or the student’s program as applicable. The student should use the following link to begin the process of working with ODS. The student will need to provide documentation about his/her disability. Once the Office of Disability Services is aware that a student needs an intake and interview, that office will partner directly with the student to create a plan. Again, to respect student privacy, the Global office will not insert itself into that process. However, the student retains the right to follow up with the Global team to let us know what the plan is and how we can advocate for the student as necessary.

The goal of the ADA and its enforcement at the University is to eliminate obstacles people with disabilities encounter in meeting their educational and professional goals.

Graduate Assistantship Funding at Virginia Tech

One of the most common sources of funding for graduate students are assistantships, which can support general administrative duties, teaching, or research projects. Assistantship policies are documented in University Policy No. 6210.

Types of Assistantships

Graduate Assistants (GAs): D.C. Graduate Assistants provide academic and program support to academic, administrative or service units of the university. Responsibilities may be administrative in nature and consist of duties not directly related to teaching or research (such as academic advising, program planning, advising student groups, and assisting with the administrative duties of an office).
Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs): Graduate Research Assistants conduct academically significant research under the direction of a faculty member who is generally a principal investigator on an external grant or contract. GRAs are awarded by departments and professors who are engaged in research projects. Research assistantships offer exciting opportunities to participate in ongoing research developments at Virginia Tech. Since GRAs are often funded by sponsored research grants, they may be paid at a higher stipend level than GAs or GTAs. Students enrolled in Research & Dissertation (R & D) credit hours while holding a GRA position are expected to exert significant time and effort toward earning those credits in addition to fulfilling their assistantship duties.
Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs): Graduate Teaching Assistants provide academic program support under the supervision of a faculty member. GTAs may assist faculty in teaching undergraduate courses, including laboratory teaching assignments, or in providing other appropriate professional assistance, including grading examinations, problem sets, and/or lab assignments, setting up displays for lectures and laboratory sections, and preparing or maintaining equipment used in lab sections. GTAs must have 18 hours of graduate-level course work completed in their teaching disciplines to be assigned full responsibility for teaching an undergraduate course. The GTA workshop is held during the week before the start of each semester.

Eligibility and Requirements

Maintain a 3.0 GPA; departmental requirements may be higher (provisional students with a GPA between 2.75 and 2.99 may also receive assistantships). Students whose GPA falls below 3.0 may remain on assistantship if their assistantship employer wishes to continue to support them.
Students who plan to defend early and leave the university during the fall or spring semester should not be on an assistantship but may be paid on wages or P14 appointment.
Resigning early from an assistantship may result in prorated tuition responsibility for the student.

Compensation and Benefits

The University provides an assistantship compensation package that is comparable with those offered by our peer institutions. The stipend table for graduate assistants ranges from Step 1 to Step 50, representing a pay range within which graduate assistants must be paid. Departments determine which pay step to use based on the student's qualifications and experience, academic standing, and availability of funds.
Federal and state taxes, if applicable, are withheld from the assistantship stipend check, which is issued semi-monthly at approximately the first and sixteenth of each month.
During the academic year (Fall/Spring; tuition for summer and winter enrollment not included) students will receive a tuition remission for the in-state tuition, applicable program fee, and library and technology fees for the semester of their assistantship, in proportion to the assistantship appointment FTE and time period. Tuition remission is earned in 4-week increments, with full remission earned when students complete at least 16 weeks of work between the standard assistantship contract dates of the semester. Payment of Comprehensive fees and CFE (Commonwealth Facility and Equipment) fees is not provided.
Graduate students who earn more than $4000 in an academic year on assistantship appointment(s) may be eligible for a waiver of the out-of-state portion of tuition for the year. Summer earnings on assistantship or wage employment do not count towards meeting the $4000 minimum earnings requirement.
Graduate assistants who maintain at least a 50% assistantship (10 hours per week), may be eligible for health insurance benefits.

Important Considerations

Virginia residents do not automatically receive in-state tuition status when they enter a graduate program at Virginia Tech, even if they were undergraduate students at Virginia Tech paying as an in-state resident. You must submit the In-State Tuition Request form to be qualified for in-state tuition.
Comprehensive fees are a mandatory cost of attendance for students enrolling in Blacksburg that support the operation of self-funded (auxiliary enterprise) units providing services for the benefit of all students (recreational sports, Schiffert Health Center, Cook Counseling Center, Blacksburg Transit, etc). Services covered by these fees are accessible to students only in the semesters when they are enrolled. Students are responsible for comprehensive fees each semester. Out-of-state students must also pay a Commonwealth Facilities & Equipment (CFE) fee.
Graduate students on assistantship appointment may pay their comprehensive and CFE fees in installments through a payment plan during the fall and spring semesters. Enrollment is managed through Hokie SPA and students must sign up each semester in which they wish to take advantage of this opportunity.
Students offered an assistantship must electronically sign the Graduate Assistantship Contract, which is a contract between the student and department. Assistantship contracts can be accessed through onecampus.vt.edu, Graduate Contracts.
Students on a full assistantship (also referred to as 100%, 1 FTE), are expected to work an average of 20 hours/week during their contract period. Specific work assignments are provided by the employing departments. Students enrolled in Research & Dissertation (R & D) credit hours while holding an assistantship position are expected to exert significant time and effort toward earning those credits in addition to fulfilling their assistantship duties.
Graduate students on full assistantships are not prohibited from seeking additional employment (some restrictions apply: assistantships cannot be combined with P14 appointments; immigration regulations further govern international student employment). Students should consult with their academic advisor and/or assistantship supervisor as applicable regarding the fulfillment of their assistantship and graduate study responsibilities. Students must notify the Graduate School about any additional employment, including the period of employment, name and contact of employer, and job title or short description of duties.
Five-year bachelor/master's students can hold assistantships in the last semester of their senior year and receive an in-state tuition scholarship, but their out-of-state fees cannot be waived. Bachelor/Master's students in the last semester of their senior year (level 46 students) who are offered assistantships cannot accept funds from the undergraduate scholarship funds and the graduate scholarship funds concurrently.
If an assistantship is terminated prior to the completion of the academic semester, the remission of tuition and E&G fees will be prorated in four week increments, with each quarter of tuition earned by the completion of four full weeks of work and full remission earned only if the student completes the assistantship (16 full weeks or more in a semester). The table below details the tuition obligations for students who leave the assistantship appointment before the semester is complete. Fall Dates for Delayed start with Standard end date of Dec. Standard assistantship contract start and end dates are the same each year to provide 9 pay periods a semester regardless of the actual semester start/end dates. Assistantship benefits such as the health insurance subsidy are distributed evenly through the 18 pay periods in an academic year. Your reporting to work date and last day of work might be different from the contract start/end dates, including starting to work later than the contract start date and working some days beyond the official contract end date. Departments must specify whether a student is to work over school- or semester breaks. Students may be offered assistantships at any time of year.
Virginia Tech follows the safe harbor outlined in Revenue Procedure 2005-11. All graduate students employed by and enrolled at VT in at least 5 credit hours in fall/spring/summer will be exempt from FICA taxes; students who are not enrolled in the summer while on assistantship are subject to FICA taxes on their earnings.
Services such as recreational sports, Schiffert Health Center, Cook Counseling Center, Student Legal Services, etc., are covered by comprehensive fees, which are mandatory when students are enrolled. If not enrolled in the summer, students on summer assistantship have the option of paying for certain services directly (Cook Counseling; Schiffert Health Center; Rec Sports) if they wish to use these. Day-use charges for Cook Counseling and Schiffert Health Center are reimbursable by the Aetna Student Insurance sponsored by VT, regardless of how often the service is used. However, payment of the full summer health services fee is not a reimbursable expense.
In the event of a pre-existing relationship, the GA, GTA, or GRA is required to disclose the relationship in writing to the relevant department supervisor or department chair before their role begins. Failure to follow the above procedures to ensure a respectful and supportive environment for students may result in loss of GA, GTA or GRA funding if applicable.

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