<p>Hey guys, </p>
<p>I know the deadline for the monthly payment plan is ending soon(as in w/o incurring in late fee) so I was wondering....is the monthly payment plan required if you're planning to just pay the entire semester's fees+tuition in one sum? My parents want to enroll in MPP only if it means you have to pay the whole year's costs at once(not pay twice-once per semester). </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>You don’t want to do monthly budget plan if you want to do lump sum. Just have your parents register at penn.pay and they will send email to them when there is a bill due.</p>
<p>Monthly budget plan:</p>
<p>[Penn</a> Montly Budget Plan](<a href=“http://www.sfs.upenn.edu/budget-plan/index.htm]Penn”>Submit My Documents | Penn Student Registration & Financial Services| Penn Srfs)</p>
<p>Penn.pay:</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“Submit My Documents | Penn Student Registration & Financial Services| Penn Srfs”>Submit My Documents | Penn Student Registration & Financial Services| Penn Srfs]Penn.Pay[/url</a>]</p>
<p>And if you aren’t in the monthly plan, you are billed once for each semester, i.e., twice during the academic year. For example, you are billed at the beginning of July for all of the fall semester’s costs (tuition/fees/room/board), and that amount is due in the beginning of August. And then you are similarly billed in the fall for the spring semester.</p>
<p>But note that the monthly plan (spread over 10 months) is interest-free.</p>
<p>Also note that Penn has a prepayment plan whereby you can prepay your entire 4 years, but the tuition and fees are locked in at the current year’s rates (so you avoid the inevitable tuition increases for the following 3 years), in case that’s an option.</p>
<p>The way I see it in the monthly plan, you start paying early in May, so for 3/5 of the bill you need to pay 1-3 months early, for 1/5 of the bill you pay on time, and another 1/5 you get to pay 1 month late. For this privilege, you pay additional $75. So the interest-free part I think is really applicable to the payer’s money, not being able to earn any interest by paying mostly early.</p>
<p>For prepay, if you are full pay then it makes sense, otherwise, how would one really figures how to pay ahead with variable financial aid.</p>
<p>^ Depending on how much you pay through the monthly plan, and the interest rate you’re earning on your money (and if you know of a decent rate somewhere, please share ;)), the $75 fee could be a wash or, at most, negligible. It really depends, and each student’s parents will have to figure out what works best for them.</p>
<p>And you’re probably right about the prepay plan–it seems to apply only to full-pay students:</p>
<p>[Tuition</a> Prepayment Plan](<a href=“http://www.sfs.upenn.edu/paying/paying-tuition-prepayment-plan.htm]Tuition”>Submit My Documents | Penn Student Registration & Financial Services| Penn Srfs)</p>
<p>I agree, the interest is mostly negligible at this point unless you are like me where I need to borrow to pay for a lot of the bill which I have to pay interest on. All I am saying is that if you cannot pay lump sum in August, how does it really help you when you already have to pay 4/5 and about 1/5 of the bill left one month later. And for this you have to pay $75, I’d rather save the $75 and pay lump sum in August. But that is just me, so I agree, everyone should figure out what works best for them.</p>
<p>^ You’re right about that–if you’re borrowing the money, it doesn’t make sense to borrow any of it earlier than you have to, PLUS pay another $75 on top of the additional interest.</p>
<p>if you’re not enrolled in the Monthly budget plan, does the school automatically send you the bill coming august?</p>
<p>^ It’s sent the beginning of July, and due the beginning of August.</p>
<p>You will only get a paper bill in the mail this summer before your freshman year. After that, it will all be done electronically through Penn.Pay:</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“Submit My Documents | Penn Student Registration & Financial Services| Penn Srfs”>Submit My Documents | Penn Student Registration & Financial Services| Penn Srfs]Penn.Pay[/url</a>] (click on “What is Penn.Pay”)</p>
<p>@ everyone </p>
<p>Thank you so much for the feedback! I think not enrolling in MPP will be the best option for us since my parents decided they didn’t need another bill(with potential late fee) every month and can pay 1 lump sum per semester. </p>
<p>Also, I have some additional follow-up questions(I kinda didn’t realize them earlier sorry)</p>
<p>-Book fees and personal expenses are a part of my financial aid package. Is this included in the bill that we pay each semester or is it subtracted from the amount we pay? I thought it would be strange to have to pay book fee+personal fee TO THE COLLEGE since we buy books on our own and control our own personal expenses. </p>
<p>-Can we pay off a work-study job? Instead of working during freshman yr when I’ll be struggling with the new environment, I decided instead to work like crazy during the summer to pay off student contribution+work study(my parents will pay whatever the difference is). How do we do this? Contact the financial aid office?</p>
<p>Thanks! Please feel free to post additional questions you might have here! I’d like to learn from the answers too!</p>
<p>^I have the same question as rundmc. time to revive this thread</p>
<p>Should returning students have their FA packages yet?</p>