University of Texas Permian Basin has added a new option to its payment plan system this year — UTPB 3.
The plan started this fall.
Estimated cost for in-state resident tuition/fees for 30 hours, books, housing and a meal plan for the fall and spring semester is $20,902 for a two-person suite double occupancy and $22,108 for a four-person suite.
It’s $10,234 for tuition and fees and books and supplies.
The UTPB 3 allows students to enroll and start attending classes with just a $35 fee.
“They pay the enrollment fee of $35 and then their first payment of 33 percent is due the 15th of the next month. Then they have two additional payments of 33 percent on the 15th of the next two months,” UTPB Senior Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Becky Spurlock said.
Students often work and pay for school as they go.
“What we were hearing is that students were waiting to register, or waiting until the first week of school, until they got their August or September check before they could come. That didn’t seem to us to make a lot of sense,” Spurlock said.
By offering a payment plan where students know they can enroll and pay the $35 fee but also know they have a paycheck coming, it buys them a little time and doesn’t prevent them from signing up.
“This new plan is offering another option for our community. We have had a very positive response to the program. We are having lots of people signing up for it. It is proving to be very popular, which tells me it’s really meeting a need. As of this morning (Aug. 28) we had 778 students in the UTPB 3 program and 419 in Falcon 4. Payment plans are open through Friday.”
Spurlock noted that even if students live locally, more and more students are choosing to live on campus because they want that experience. They want to be close to campus and participate in all the activities.
“Generally speaking, our students who live on campus perform better academically and in terms of their retention,” she added.
With the Falcon 4 plan, which is still in place, you pay the enrollment fee to have a payment plan, but you have to make a 25 percent payment immediately and then you make three payments of 25 percent of whatever you owe. That is minus any scholarships or grants received. It is due the 15th of every month.
Spurlock said UTPB’s student accounts team works with student bills.
“I’m really proud of the partnership our Dean of Students off has had with student accounts. And together, over the last several years, we’ve really identified barriers in our process — unintended barriers, but barriers — and our financial aid, student accounts (and) dean of students office, three different areas that work together have really created innovative programs that now other people around the state are starting to ask about and follow,” Spurlock said.
She added that they have reduced the number of people who are prevented from registering because they owe money.
Spurlock said they are looking at how they can work more creatively with students who have balances, have a partnership with the student emergency services staff to help students with one-time emergencies and support their financial needs.
“Our financial literacy team is part of the Dean of Students Office and how can we help students who are struggling to work through what they can afford and how they can structure their monthly needs?” Spurlock said.
“This is just one more innovation in a line of innovations that our team has been working on,” she added.
When they would call students and say they noticed the student hadn’t registered yet they would say they were waiting for their August check or September check from work before they registered they needed the money for the downpayment.
“Students were waiting, which also meant they were going to have maybe not as many choices in what classes are left. That didn’t seem fundamentally right to us. So the creation of this payment plan lets people make that choice to get registered and take care of their classes earlier and have the time needed, if they’re waiting on additional financial resources, so I’m really proud of our team,” Spurlock said.
Director of Strategic Communications Alexa Dunson said UTPB has a cost calculator online where students can get a good idea of what their costs are going to be.
“It’s not going to be 100 percent. … It could be a little more; it could be a little less; hopefully a little less, especially with our scholarships and financial aid … But we really encourage people to go into that cost calculator, type in their credit hours, if they’re going to be in-state or out-of-state, and an online or in-person learner,” Dunson said.
Spurlock said online and in-person classes are generally pretty similar in cost.
If you’re taking online classes, but you’re not in a fully online program, those courses will likely cost a little bit more to deliver in terms of instruction.
“We are incredibly affordable and the average cost, after aid, is continuing to come down far below what the state average is. … We rank in the top five for most affordable universities in Texas,” Spurlock said.
She added that the majority of UTPB students get financial aid in the form of merit scholarships or grants, so what they tend to owe is considerably less.
“If they have a small balance, being able to pay that out over three or four payments makes what’s left over pretty manageable,” Spurlock said.
