Frequently Asked Questions

Although work experience is not a requirement, it is highly preferred. Approximately 97 percent of the applicants offered admission have a minimum of two years of professional work experience.

The online Master of Business Administration is composed of 54 credits and may be completed in as few as 24 months.

Transfer credits are not accepted for the Online MBA program.

Note: Transfer credit requests from students of the University of Maryland, College Park Part-Time MBA program wishing to enroll in the Online MBA program may be considered. Please contact an enrollment advisor for more information.

Please review all tuition & fee information here. Tuition and fees are subject to annual increase, which are released in July of each year.

Please watch the “Navigating your bill” webinar for an overview of your student account and how to pay your bill. The webinar is found under the “Billing” section here.

Refunds are sent out by the Student Financial Services and Cashiering office and will be sent 10 days before classes begin if you have signed up for direct deposit. If not signed up for direct deposit, checks will be mailed to the local address on file on the first day of classes. Please be aware that these refunds are typically from financial aid loans. Before spending a refund, students who are taking out student loans should verify with the Financial Aid Office that they are in fact eligible for the refund. Students should email umdfinaid@umd.edu. To sign up for direct deposit, click here.

Students who do not pay their balance by the payment deadline are assessed a 5% late fee for the first month they are delinquent on their payment and a finance charge of 1.5% for each month thereafter that their balance goes unpaid.

Unpaid balances will result in a financial block being placed on a student’s account, which will not allow them to register for any additional courses going forward until this balance is paid. A financial hold on a student’s account will also result in the inability to receive transcripts or diplomas.

No. The Smith School does not have permission to remove a student’s late fees or finance charges. Only the Office of Student Financial Services and Cashiering has the ability to remove a student’s late penalties. A late fee removal is not an ordinary occurrence and students must have a circumstance that was beyond their control in order to be considered.

Students can submit a late fee appeal to the Office of Student Financial Services and Cashiering by emailing billtalk@umd.edu. The appeal should include a statement explaining why the late payment was made and the circumstances surrounding the issue. Supporting documentation should also be included in the appeal. Please be aware that approval is not guaranteed and the decision is entirely up to the discretion of the Office of Student Financial Services and Cashiering. All decisions are final.

You can access your account balance by logging into your billing portal. The current activity section or your billing portal shows you a live look at your account. The billing statement shows you your account balance as of the date printed on the statement.

Billing charges for the fall semester will generate at the end of July and for the spring semester, billing charges will generate at the end of December. Paper bills will NOT be sent to students registered for the current and/or upcoming term. Registered students will receive an email notification that their monthly bill statement is ready for viewing.

Anytime a student receives a billing notification email, there is a balance due. The Office of Student Financial Services and cashiering will not email when there isn’t a balance due on the account.

International students can make a payment via Flywire. Information regarding making a Flywire payment is available in the student’s billing portal.

Yes, students may make monthly payments for the fall and spring semesters only. For more information regarding the TPP, please visit this website: billpay.umd.edu/TPP. The TPP is not available for the summer semester. Summer balances are due in full by the billing due dates.

Unfortunately, UMD does not have the capability of providing itemized billing statements by course. Please visit the “Billing Explanation and Resources” section here. There is a list of several documents students can utilize for documentation to employers.

Third Party Billing Is a division of the Office of Student Financial Services and Cashiering who processes third party payments and private scholarships. Instructions on submitting employer payment information can be found on their website.

Smith School students follow a different refund schedule in comparison with the rest of the university. A 100% refund may only be given to those students who drop a course before the class begins. Students who drop a course during the add/drop period will only receive an 80% refund for that dropped course. Students will need to check their student support specialist for specific dates to drop a course and still be eligible for a refund.

Graduate students are automatically packaged for the Unsubsidized Direct Loan and Graduate PLUS loans. A credit check is done for the Grad Plus Loan.

The maximum allowed amount in the Unsubsidized Direct Loan is $20,500 per year. This will be split evenly between the fall and spring semesters.

Grad PLUS loans may be taken out for up to the cost of attendance of the program minus any other financial aid, including but not limited to other loans, scholarships, discounts, and employer payments. For military students, VA funding is not taken into consideration when applying for loans. For more information about these loans, please visit the Office of Financial Aid’s website.

The Financial Aid Office will begin reviewing students for aid packages once all forms and applications have been submitted to their office. Their typical processing time is about 4 weeks.

The main reason a student’s aid does not post to their student account is because they are missing required loan documents. There are four loan documents that need to be completed and received by the Financial Aid Office before your loans are legally allowed to disburse to a student’s account.

Students can find a list of documents needed for completion by logging into their financial aid portal and selecting “view/complete verification documents” from under the “To Do” section in the menu.

To help students determine the money you owe or money you’re getting back, The Office of Financial Aid will put pending aid amounts on students’ billing accounts for the fall and spring semesters. Pending aid amounts are typically added in mid-July for Fall and mid-December for Spring. The pending aid is replaced with actual funds approximately 10 days before the start of each term.

If the loan has not been paid to your account you can use the financial aid portal to decline it by accepting $0. If a loan has been paid to your account already, please send an email to umdfinaid@umd.edu.

Summer aid is awarded manually after a student is registered for summer courses. This is because enrollment for summer needs to be verified in order for the Department of Education to provide additional loan funding. Summer financial aid information is typically sent once summer registration information is made available for students. Please see the “Summer Financial Aid” section for more details on summer aid.

Refunds are sent out by the Student Financial Services and Cashiering office and will be sent 10 days before classes begin if you have signed up for direct deposit. If not signed up for direct deposit, checks will be mailed to the local address on file on the first day of classes. Please be aware that these refunds are typically from financial aid loans. Before spending a refund, students who are taking out student loans should verify with the Financial Aid Office that they are in fact eligible for the refund. Students should email umdfinaid@umd.edu. To sign up for direct deposit, click here.

Students who drop classes throughout the semester may have all or a portion of their financial aid loans taken back if they fall below minimum enrollment guidelines according to the Department of Education. Repayment of the loan also begins if the student drops below 4 credits. Students must maintain a minimum of 24 graduate units in a given semester, which equates to 4 credits.

Students are provided a Cost of Attendance budget each year. This provides a total amount that a student cannot exceed in a given year/semester. If the student receives more aid than what is allowed, it will be charged back to their accounts and the student is responsible for paying back funds to the university.

Students graduating in summer (August) have the option of using the current aid year or the following aid year. For example, a student graduating in Summer 2023 can use additional aid from the 2022-2023 FAFSA, or they may submit a FAFSA for 2023-2024 and use aid from the following year. Students should contact Financial Aid (umdfinaid@umd.edu) to discuss their specific situation.

Students starting in the summer term use the current aid year. For example, a student starting in Summer 2023 should complete the 2022-2023 FAFSA to use in Summer 2023. They should also complete the 2023-2024 FAFSA to use in Fall 2023/Spring 2024.

After winter course registration, students should email umdfinaid@umd.edu to request an adjustment to their fall financial aid package to account for winter registration.