Dear Mississippi State Undergraduate Students,

At Mississippi State University, we are committed to maintaining transparency in the assessment of tuition and fees. Beginning Fall 2025, MSU will implement changes to some aspects of its tuition and fee structure that will improve fairness, clarity, and sustainability. 

TRANSITION FROM CAPPED TUITION TO OVERLOAD TUITION

MSU has endeavored over the decades to provide the highest quality education, at a very reasonable cost, to maximize the return on investment in higher education made by our students and their families. In doing so, our tuition model has been built on MSU undergraduates paying tuition by credit hour up to and including 12 hours, at which a student is officially full-time, and the tuition is “capped.” The negative aspects of this model, and likely the reasons it is no longer in use at many peer institutions, is because it does not reflect the actual costs of delivering instruction to students taking 15, 18, or even 21 hours in a semester, which is borne in part by students taking fewer hours. Taking steps to achieve fairness to all students while not disincentivizing overload hours because of the potential implications on time to degree and cost of education has led to a structure attempting to achieve both objectives.

Beginning Fall 2025, MSU will begin assessing Overload Tuition, as follows:

• Full-time status will remain at 12 credit hours; however, students may take an additional 4 credit hours (up to 16 credit hours) for the same full-time rate. These “free” hours will allow students to graduate on-time, or even early, thus reducing their overall cost of attendance, and statistically increasing student success.  

• Students will be assessed the per-credit-hour tuition rate for overload hours (17+) in the same manner and at the same rate as part-time students (taking 1 to 11 hours) are assessed.

NEW COLLEGE-SPECIFIC FEES

In addition to the change in tuition structure, new College Fees will be introduced for certain undergraduate academic programs.

• These fees apply to Sophomore, Junior, and Senior students enrolled in select colleges across all campuses.
• Full-time students will be assessed a full-time College Fee; part-time students will be charged a pro-rated amount based on the number of enrolled credit hours
• Fee amounts will vary based on your academic college and classification level.

These changes reflect the differing instructional costs across disciplines and course levels. Revenue from College Fees will support enhanced student services, allow for smaller class sizes, expanded course offerings, and enriched academic support.

LEARN MORE

We encourage all students and families to review the full details and Frequently Asked Questions at www.paymybill.msstate.edu

For questions about how these changes may affect your financial aid, please contact the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships at financialaid@msstate.edu.  For questions regarding course planning, please contact your academic advisor.

Thank you for your continued commitment to academic success at Mississippi State.

Hail State!