<p>Berkeley only charges by the semester for ‘tuition’. If you are in the dorms, then you have a 10 month commitment, but everything else is strictly on a semester by semester basis.</p>
<p>Your first months obligation is composed of:
- 1/10th of your housing charge if you in the dorms
- one semester of instate registration/health/miscellaneous fees (‘tuition’)
- one semester of out-of-state additional charges</p>
<p>Someone can choose to divide the tuition and out of state charge across five equal monthly payments (i.e. spread it over the semester). In that case, you pay 1/10th housing, 1/5th of tuition and 1/5th of out-of-state for the first month. Cal will charge you a $40 per semester convenience fee for this ability to spread out the payments.</p>
<p>Normally with finaid, you don’t spread out the tuition, it is all paid in the first month by your aid package. </p>
<p>your situation, where you are still assessed an out of state charge but expect to be classified as a California resident, is an odd mixture. Financial aid so no time payments but an extra charge that will be reversed once they finish the residency review process.</p>
<p>They are saying that if your financial aid payment is going to be at least 1/10th of housing and the full semesters tuition, then you don’t have to pay the extra out of state charge right now. The system will assume you are choosing the payment plan (five equal payments) and will tack on the $40 charge.</p>
<p>Now, once you are classified as a resident of California, they would reverse the out of state charge and in addition would see that you were not putting any money on the payment plan (no balance due after they remove the OOS charge), so they will also remove the $40 fee.</p>
<p>If your finaid will pay the semester tuition (instate) and cover the 1/10th of housing charge, you don’t do anything at all. If the finaid is not enough for that, all you have to add is a payment to bring the total paid for the month to 1/10th of housing plus tuition. Don’t pay any additional for the OOS charge.</p>
<p>of course, if they ultimately decide you are an out of state student, then you have to pay the additional amount over the next four billing months.</p>