Understanding Your Bill

Tuition is billed at a fixed amount per semester and assumes full-time enrollment. Tuition includes enrollment in 12 to 20 credits each semester. Students should plan on completing 16 credits per semester to stay on track to graduate in four years. If a student chooses to enroll in more than 20 credits, additional charges will apply.

The comprehensive fee covers all aspects of enrolling as a new student and also includes the mandatory summer McDaniel Local orientation program and tuition, housing, and meals for the required on-campus January Term where new students will participate in My Design, the second part of the McDaniel Commitment. This fee also includes student activities, laundry, use of our fitness facilities, each student’s on-campus print allowance, technology infrastructure, and more.

In order to help students become integrated into our campus community, first-year, sophomore, and junior students are required to live on campus unless they live with their family within 30 miles of campus, are married, or are over age 24. First-year students are typically assigned a double room in a traditional residence hall. More diverse housing options, including independent apartment-style housing, are available to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. The billed room charge is for one semester of on-campus housing.

The security deposit is assessed one time to students living on campus and will only be used for housing fees incurred by the student (for example, housing damage fees). Security deposit balances will be refunded to the student upon graduation or upon separation from on-campus housing.

This charge reflects the cost of the student’s selected meal plan for one semester. New students select their meal plan of choice through their online Housing and Roommate Matching Application.

The PLATINUM PLAN is the college’s premier meal plan. It provides the greatest flexibility, with unlimited access to the Englar Dining Hall in addition to $150 of flexible spending dollars to use for coffee and snacks at Caseys’ Corner (the campus coffee shop), the campus store, or other locations on campus. This plan is ideal for students who prefer to eat throughout the day (for example, popping into the dining hall for a donut and coffee before an early morning class and then coming back after class for a more traditional breakfast).

The GOLD PLAN is a tiered meal plan of 19 meals per week, which means that instead of providing a set amount of meals for the whole semester, the plan resets each Sunday so there is no danger of students running out of meals before the semester is over. In addition, students enrolled in the Gold Plan are also provided with $100 of flexible spending dollars to use for coffee and snacks at Caseys’ Corner, the campus store, or other locations around campus.

PLATINUM MEAL PLAN*: $3,928 per semester
GOLD MEAL PLAN*: $3,654 per semester

(Fall 2026/Spring 2027 Rates)

Student health is important to us! McDaniel College requires that all students have health insurance coverage. All students are billed for health insurance coverage for the academic year in the first semester bill unless they have comparable health insurance coverage and an approved waiver. Plan details are available at wellfleetstudent.com. The website to complete the Health Insurance Waiver typically opens mid-May.

HAVE YOUR OWN HEALTH COVERAGE? NO PROBLEM!

If you already have comparable health insurance, you can waive the health insurance provided to you. Instructions on waiving the health insurance are included on page 9. If you plan to waive the insurance but haven’t done so yet, you can deduct the health insurance charge from your balance due in making your payment. Please note that the waiver is in addition to required health form requests from Health Services and Athletics. The health insurance waiver must be submitted no later than July 1 for fall enrollment or January 15 for spring enrollment, or you will be responsible for the cost of the McDaniel health insurance coverage.

Some courses contain additional fees for materials, field trips, or other course-specific expenses. Course fees may not be present on the initial bill. If you add or change classes, these fees may be added or removed. You can adjust your class schedule within the first two weeks of the semester. Please review your account statement online and pay for any course fees that have been applied.

We encourage students to actively seek out and apply for outside scholarships as a way to reduce college expenses. You will need to report any outside scholarships received to the Financial Aid Office by submitting a copy of your scholarship award documents. Please note that many scholarships send funds in the fall but require that those funds be divided equally between the fall and spring semesters. We recommend that you review the payment details of any scholarships received carefully in order to plan your payments. A student cannot receive aid in excess of their cost of attendance from any combination of institutional, federal, state, or private funding source. If the amount of aid received exceeds the cost of attendance, the award package will be adjusted.

To finalize your financial aid, please log in to Financial Aid Self-Service as soon as possible — and no later than July 1 — to ensure your fall bill is accurate. Be sure to complete all required items, including signing your offer letter, completing your promissory note and entrance counseling, and accepting any pending aid. Once you have finalized your financial aid, the total of your accepted awards will be subtracted from your fall charges, leaving you with the anticipated balance due. If you have applied for a private student loan or a parent PLUS loan or have received any outside scholarship awards, those should be reflected in your pending financial aid as well.

IF NO PENDING FINANCIAL AID APPEARS ON YOUR BILL OR SOMETHING IS MISSING, it typically means that you have not completed all the steps on your financial aid checklist.

Visit Financial Aid Self-Service at mcdaniel.edu/self-service to view your checklist and complete any missing steps. You may also contact your financial aid counselor at any time to check the status of your financial aid and next steps.

Please note that your financial aid will be listed on your bill as pending because you have not started the semester yet. Once classes begin, your financial aid will be paid (disbursed) to your student account and appear as a credit on your bill.

While the majority of your college expenses are included in your bill, there are some that are not but should be planned for. Typical indirect costs listed on your financial aid offer but not included as expenses on your bill are the cost to purchase your books and related class materials each semester, transportation expenses (car registration fees, flights if the student does not live near campus, gas, etc.), and personal expenses (from coffee to new sneakers for your kinesiology activity course). We recommend that you include $1,000 to $1,500 per semester in your financial planning for unbilled expenses.