Can someone educate me what these are?pros and cons? I’m paying OSS tuition. Thanks!
[Read this](http://sbs.tamu.edu/media/917558/locked_rate_and_variable_rate_tuition_faqs_-_handout.pdf)
Basically, fixed means that they make an estimate of what the final cost of your attendance over the whole time will be, accounting for tuition increases, and divide it by 4, and charge you that per year. Variable just takes that year’s tuition and charges it.
For variable, will start off cheaper to allow you (and your parents) to settle into the payment process, and gets more expensive by the end. A benefit of this may be seen in the fact that the amount of increase can easily be compensated by the student with a job, which the student is more likely to get after the first year or two of college. This way, the student can actually try to carry some of the weight of the payments later on, thereby requiring the parents to pay less overall. The fixed rate is, I guess, better for parents who want a very specific amount that they know will be consistent every year and don’t have to worry about increasing.
You will be paying part of your tuition as fixed because of their policy. You will get to pick whether the other part is fixed or variable.
Fixed rate is good if the tuition goes up higher than predicted. But fixed or varies only applies to the instate part of the tuition. Out of state tuition can still increase even if you pick fixed rate.