<p>I have not heard of universities having different tiers of tuition based on major. Is this a new trend?</p>
<p>Virginia Tech engineering students pay a premium for their 1000 level e’school classes of $30/credit hour. I believe this has been phased in.</p>
<p>It’s probably fairly common. Here’s more info(including reasons for instituting the fee) about the Virginia Tech engineering fee that blueiguana mentions.
[Engineering</a> Fee | <a href=“http://www.eng.vt.edu%5B/url%5D”>www.eng.vt.edu](<a href=“http://www.eng.vt.edu/engineeringfee]Engineering”>http://www.eng.vt.edu/engineeringfee)</a></p>
<p>UIUC has different rates for different majors, presumably based on lab costs:
[University</a> of Illinois Financial Aid: Undergraduate Resident 2010-2011 Cost](<a href=“http://www.osfa.uiuc.edu/cost/undergrad/res_1112.html]University”>http://www.osfa.uiuc.edu/cost/undergrad/res_1112.html)</p>
<p>Note that undergraduate students at UIUC are guaranteed the same tuition rate for four years:
[University</a> of Illinois Financial Aid: Cost](<a href=“http://www.osfa.uiuc.edu/cost/index.html]University”>http://www.osfa.uiuc.edu/cost/index.html)</p>
<p>University of Michigan too…</p>
<p>If anything, Florida is probably a little late to the party if they are only just now instituting additional fees. If you click on the Virginia Tech link I posted-toward the bottom of the page there is an additional link called Tuition Differentials between Virginia Tech and other Selected Universities(pdf)-there is lots of info there about other schools and engineering fees. Lots of schools charge more in engineering ,in particular.</p>
<p>Are UF and FSU including math (the M in STEM) students in the surcharge? That would be strange, since math courses usually do not have much in the way of expensive labs like engineering and science courses (and some other subjects like art with studio).</p>
<p>Most universities call it differential tuition and many have been doing it for years.
Very common for business, nursing, engineering and design.</p>
<p>Often it is a supply and demand issue for the difference. As an example, business colleges generally have more people wanting to major than spots available so admission has become competitive. With such demand, they have also started to charge a tuition differential. Why? Because they have the demand and people will pay it.</p>
<p>It appears to be in the planning stages in an attempt to increase the quality of the programs and attract students. Florida state schools are already a financial godsend for instate students who qualify for privates but can’t afford it. Been out of college so many decades that I hadn’t heard of this before. I thought lab fees were where the money came from but clearly that is not enough revenue in this technology driven world.</p>
<p>Did not hear UF or FSU presidents say anything about lowering fees for non-stem students who have been subsidizing stem programs at the two universities. Both schools already collect tuition differential which is not charged at all Florida state universities. Bottom line is Florida public universities are struggling financially now with funding cutbacks from state and feds and the schools will try to pass costs on to students anyway they can.</p>
<p>Of course, a student on a budget considering attending FSU for engineering may want to make note that the engineering division is shared with FAMU, which has about a $3,000 per year lower cost of attendance at list price (though applying to both and seeing how financial aid and scholarships turn out would be the best idea since financial aid and scholarships can change which one costs less).</p>
<p>What ingrates :-). They get to go to Florida for college and complain :-)</p>
<p>I’m actually quite surprised this is a recent trend… It made no sense to me 30 years ago when I was going to college here and it makes no sense today to charge English 101 tuition the same as Physics 490… Same reason with ‘per credit’ versus ‘all you can eat’ full time tuition fees (12+ flat rate… nice - we always registered for 21 hours and dropped the bad one on the way)</p>
<p>University of Michigan, as pointed out earlier, has a pretty hilarious scheme (can’t think of a better term) for different majors. Business is particularly expensive. It may not be a US only phenomenon, too. I was pricing UBC (Canada) and it’s got all kinds of per- fees. UBC or McGill even had the ‘perpetual student’ fee for those who do not finish in X semesters.</p>
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<p>As public schools, they don’t want students staying around forever costing excessive amounts of subsidized tuition.</p>
<p>If public schools in the US charged out-of-state tuition to in-state students who took more than 8 semesters to graduate from freshman entry (or 4 semesters from junior transfer entry), would that improve four year graduation rates due to increased financial incentive to finish on time? Or would it worsen overall graduation rates as those who did not finish in 8 semesters drop out due to it being too expensive to finish? Or both?</p>