Billing and Payment FAQs

Your tuition and fees bill is delivered electronically, viewable via CAESAR. Navigate to: CAESAR > Student Homepage > My Account tile > View or Pay Tuition Bill. When each new bill is posted online, an email notice will be sent to your Northwestern email address.

Your bill is a statement of your financial obligation to Northwestern with reference to your tuition and fees. When practical, each type of charge is listed as a different line item. The cost of your tuition is calculated either as a flat rate, or as a per unit rate, or both. In some cases, you may drop and add classes several times and still maintain the same costs.

The month after you have paid your account in full, you may receive a bill that shows the payment you made and a resulting zero balance. No payment is necessary. This statement is for your records only.

This means that you have a credit on your account, resulting from an overpayment or excess financial aid. You may leave the credit on the account to apply to future charges, or you may request a refund using the instructions on the Financial Aid Refunds page of our website.

If you wish to contest a portion of the bill, you should pay the uncontested portion by the due date and immediately contact the appropriate office to request an adjustment. Pursue adjustments promptly to avoid registration holds.

Mail your payment with your invoice to:

Northwestern University
P.O. Box 70385
Chicago, IL 60673

Not all schools accept online tuition deposits. Below is a list of the schools who accept online tuition deposits via CAESAR:

• School of Communication
• School of Education and Social Policy
• Feinberg School of Medicine PO and PT
• Kellogg School of Management
• Pritzker School of Law
• McCormick School of Engineering
• Medill School of Journalism
• Bienen School of Music
• School of Professional Studies

Below is a list of the schools who accept online tuition deposits via Slate:

• Undergraduates

Deposits from students admitted to other schools or programs may be made by check to the school.

Yes. Accepted credit cards include American Express, Discover, MasterCard and VISA. Please note: the third-party service provider will charge a 2.6% processing fee for all credit card payments.

See Late and Returned Payment Penalties for information.

Each student who paid qualified tuition and related expenses during the year (and who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident) will receive a Tuition Payments Statement (Form 1098-T) from Northwestern shortly after January 31st of the following year.

The statement includes financial information, such as tuition charges, scholarships received and payments made. It can be used for your federal tax return.

The Northwestern Student Health Insurance Plan (NU-SHIP) is an annual policy effective from September 1 through August 31. Aetna, the insurer, requires that the premium be paid at the beginning of the plan period. Northwestern issues payment to Aetna in September, and charges students' accounts accordingly.

To ensure all degree-seeking students carry good health insurance, they are defaulted each year into the Northwestern Student Health Insurance Plan (NU-SHIP), and charged the annual NU-SHIP premium when accounts are billed for tuition and fees for the upcoming academic year. If you do not intend to use NU-SHIP coverage, please waive your NU-SHIP enrollment as soon as possible via the online coverage selection form in CAESAR. To first verify that your plan meets all requirements to waive NU-SHIP enrollment, please review the Comparable Coverage Requirements.

Step-by-step instructions for completing the waiver application are available on the SES Support site. The NU-SHIP premium charge on your account will be reversed within 24-48 hours of your successfully submitting your waiver application (look under "View My Account" to see real-time changes reflected).

Northwestern University requires all degree-seeking students to carry good health insurance. To that end, the University defaults all students into the Northwestern Student Health Insurance Plan (NU-SHIP) each year. Unless you have already waived NU-SHIP online, you are charged the annual NU-SHIP premium at the same time your account is billed for tuition and fees for the upcoming academic year. (Open enrollment for fall runs from July 1-Oct. 1.)

If you have alternate insurance coverage and do not intend to use NU-SHIP, you should waive your NU-SHIP enrollment as soon as possible via the online coverage selection form in CAESAR. (We encourage you to verify that your plan meets all requirements to waive NU-SHIP enrollment by reviewing the Comparable Coverage Requirements.) A confirmation email will be sent to your Northwestern email account upon successful submission of the waiver application, and the premium will be reversed within 24-48 hours (look under "View My Account" to see real-time changes reflected).

The student health fee is charged to students (both undergraduate and graduate) with regular access to on-campus health services. This fee, along with other funding sources, provides Northwestern students with equitable access to a variety of health services at the university including: Northwestern Medicine Health Service in Evanston and Chicago, Counseling & Psychological Services, TimelyCare services, and other on-campus health and wellness initiatives.

The Northwestern University Student Health Insurance Plan (NU-SHIP) is comprehensive student health insurance offered through the University, unless coverage is waived.

The health fee, and other funding sources, provides Northwestern students with equitable access to a variety of health services at the university, including Northwestern Medicine Student Health Service in Chicago and Evanston, Counseling and Psychological Services, TimelyCare and other on-campus health and wellness initiatives.

Students who are enrolled in a program that is exempt from the health services fee (examples are: study abroad, internships, online programs, weekend programs, etc.) can have the fee waived. Please ask your academic program to email studentaccounts-ev@northwestern.edu with justification of why the fee should be removed.

Not without your permission. FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, prevents us from discussing your account with others.

However, you can choose to give your parent or spouse guest access to your account. When setting up a guest, create an Authorization Phrase (pick something easy for your guest to remember, but hard for others to guess).

For more details about adding a guest, see Guest Access.

Student Finance will put a hold on your account when there is a past-due balance owed to the University. The hold will not be released until you have cleared your current debt to the University.

See Late and Returned Payment Penalties for more information.

Different programs have different definitions of full-time status. The following schools and programs have identified the number of units required to meet their definitions of full-time status:

• Kellogg School of Management: 3 - 5 units
• McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science: MEM and MPM: 3 - 4 units; MIT: 2 units
• Medill School of Journalism: Graduate Journalism and IMC: 3 - 4 units; PMP-IMC: 2 units
• Bienen School of Music: 3 - 5 units
• The Graduate School: 3 - 4 units
• Undergraduate Division: 3- 4 units

You will be charged $25 for registering at an unscheduled time. If you cannot pay the penalty fee at registration, you will be charged an additional $5 surcharge for billing.