One of the biggest worries for students is the cost of tuition. How much is my upcoming year at McMaster going to cost? Do I need OSAP or a student loan? These are all very important questions. We'll go through some resources that can help.



First of all.. how much are my fees going to be?
While expenditures at university will vary by student, the estimator below will give you a general idea of what you will be expected to pay. Actual fees for new students will not be calculated until you actually go through the registration process and fill everything out for real.

Click here for the cost estimator.

Click here to see a breakdown of all the fees for different courses.

How do I pay?
First-year students will be registering for courses in July. Other upper year students will start registering in June. You will be registering for your courses using a system McMaster calls SOLAR (Student Online Academic Registration). Basically it is an online service to select your courses and proceed to pay for them.

Once you've selected your program, courses for the year, and confirmed them, you will be presented with the McMaster Payment Agreement screen. This will outline exactly how much you owe and if you're using OSAP (and your OSAP is approved) you will be able to check that option off to apply OSAP to your total.

Note that this Payment Agreement is exactly that... it's an agreement. You don't need to pay right away. Once you see your total fee, you have to agree to pay it by clicking a button that confirms you've agreed to pay. From that point on, you are then given a timeframe to make the payments in installments or in a lump sum, depending on what option you selected.

You will need to make payment by CHEQUE or, a new feature, you can pay online via Debit. NOTE: You CAN NOT pay with credit card! You actually have to have the money in order to pay it, not based on credit.

If you're paying via cheque, you can mail in the cheque to the registrar's office, or you can drop it off in person. If you're dropping it off in person when the office is closed (ie. on a weekend or after hours), there is a dropbox at the front of the doors to the office where you can drop off your cheque. MAKE SURE that your cheque has your student number written on it!

Keep checking back for more in the "Getting Ready For McMaster" series on MacInsiders!


GETTING READY FOR MCMASTER

Getting Ready For McMaster Overview - Start Here http://bitly.com/getreadyformac

Getting Ready For McMaster: 1. Activating Your MacID http://bit.ly/1pOZHXc

Getting Ready For McMaster: 2. The New Student Form http://bit.ly/1kSfU66

Getting Ready For McMaster: 3. Course Planning & Mock Timetable http://bit.ly/1oryTu5

Getting Ready For McMaster: 4. Picking Your Courses & Registering On SOLAR http://bit.ly/1mZupbs

-- Common Issues With SOLAR (and how to solve them!) http://bit.ly/1mmZCUa

Getting Ready For McMaster: 5. Calculating Fees & How To Pay http://bit.ly/1hnOydb

Getting Ready For McMaster: Buildings http://bit.ly/1mZubAR

Getting Ready For McMaster: Residence http://bit.ly/1nri15C

Getting Ready For McMaster: Course Lingo http://bit.ly/1p5FzAf

When can we start an OSAP application for the next school year again?

Originally Posted by herBs

When can we start an OSAP application for the next school year again?

It's already up, you can start now if you want.

Originally Posted by sinnersdrown

It's already up, you can start now if you want.

Can you apply for OSAP if you haven't yet registered for courses?

Originally Posted by Yogurt

Can you apply for OSAP if you haven't yet registered for courses?

Yes, you just have to put the course load you are planning to take. If you change your mind and take less/more than what you told them in your application then you have to get it changed through SFAS.

never know that u can pay with a debit card, thanks

Yup, once you complete your payment agreement and agree to pay, you will see a PAY NOW button and you can now pay directly online via INTERAC. It will load up your bank's website and you login to your bank, type in the payment amount to transfer over to McMaster, and everything is done online instantly

It is a new feature that was just recently added in the past year I believe.

Also if you're paying via cheque, make sure to make it out to "McMaster University" and have your student number written on it. Cheques can be mailed or dropped off in person.

Originally Posted by Chad

Yup, once you complete your payment agreement and agree to pay, you will see a PAY NOW button and you can now pay directly online via INTERAC. It will load up your bank's website and you login to your bank, type in the payment amount to transfer over to McMaster, and everything is done online instantly

It is a new feature that was just recently added in the past year I believe.

Also if you're paying via cheque, make sure to make it out to "McMaster University" and have your student number written on it. Cheques can be mailed or dropped off in person.

It's been up for a few years. Also, it says "instant" but it still takes time to go through...it just shows up on your student account instantly, but it shows up as "pending". My sister had her grades blocked due to a residence charge, so she paid online via the interac thing, and it still took a few days before the payment went through and she was able to see the grades.