As many of you know, I'm going to school part-time now. Last semester, I paid for my outstanding tuition (after loans) by credit card. Nice, easy, convenient for everyone.
They've recently outsourced this, it appears, and I now have to pay a “convenience fee” of $75 - although it doesn't appear to be going to the school, but rather to the 3rd party.
Is this standard practice? Seems like utter b.s. to me.
I know that there is some cost to process a credit card, but I would assume that it's some fixed, nominal cost. I mean - I can pay with my credit card or debit for a $10 lunch without any additional fee..
Maybe I'll just pay my tuition less that fee.
Oh, and while I'm at it, maybe I'll withold my “Technology Access Fee” (another $75) until they can actually get the technology working. I already went an entire semester where the wireless internet they've provided pretty much didn't work, and last night, on the first night of classes, it worked for about 10 minutes.
Many schools seem to just want to extort money from their students. Don't they realize that these small fees that they levy now are going to cost them a lot more in the future when alumni like me are pissed off and don't donate (or donate as much as they would otherwise)?
There's definitely a disconnect between the administration, which is run like a business, and the trustees or similar board, which is run like a proper higher education institution. I've seen this at Hamilton, and Fordham is no exception.