Explanation of Most Common Charges

Note: All charges are subject to change after July 1.

Health Insurance Charge

Cost (effective for the 2023-2024 school year): $3,461 (charged fall semester; annual coverage); $2,309 (charged spring semester; 8 month coverage)
Description: Under the Massachusetts Mandatory Health Insurance Law, all students who are enrolled in a degree or certificate program for nine or more credits must participate in the student health insurance program. As of the fall 2020 semester, we are required to charge the insurance fee even if some or all of a student’s nine or more credits are remote. This change is due to the required transitioning to online education resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The charge may be waived if the student has comparable coverage. The fee is charged in both the fall and spring semesters only.

If a student is taking classes remotely from another state or country, the area where the student is physically for these classes is considered the location where the student attends school. Students in this situation are eligible to waive the health insurance charge if they have comparable, out-of-state insurance.

Note: If you waive the health insurance under these conditions in the fall, but return to in-person learning in the spring, you may be required to waive the health insurance charge again. Your out-of-state insurance may not be reasonably accessible in the state of MA where you would be taking in-person classes. We are required to verify that you still have comparable coverage if you return for in-person learning.

If you do not waive this fee, you are responsible for paying it and regular billing procedures will apply. Once paid, you will be enrolled in the Student Health Insurance program for the relevant coverage period indicated above.

Registration Fee

Cost: $20 once per semester
Description: This mandatory fee is a non-refundable administrative fee charged for all day and evening credit courses. It is charged for processing your enrollment and registration.  Once your class schedule has been entered in our system, you are responsible for paying this fee even if you decide not to attend GCC.

Tuition

Cost: In-state: $26 per credit; NEHBE: $39 per credit; Out-of-state: $281 per credit
Description: This mandatory charge is assessed for all day and evening scheduled credit courses.  The in-state day tuition portion of your bill is remitted to the state of Massachusetts.  The remainder is used to help defray the costs associated with general operations of the College.

College Service Fee

Cost: $211 per credit (effective for fall 2023)
Description: This mandatory charge is assessed for all day and evening scheduled courses regardless of residency category and is used to help pay for a variety of academic services, equipment, supplies and technology expenses.

Health Records Administration Fee

Cost: $11 once per semester
Description: This mandatory fee is assessed if you have at least one credit of day scheduled (in-person lecture) credit courses or at least one credit of online/distance learning credit courses categorized as Day or Day/DCE. It may be charged for non-standard semester (part-of-term) classes if the charge has not already been assessed for a standard full semester class in that same semester. The fee is charged in both the fall and spring semesters only. It is not charged to (in-person lecture) evening classes, January intersession classes, or, summer classes. This fee is used to help defray the costs associated with administration of student health records as required by law. This fee cannot be waived.

Student Activity Fee

Cost: $30 once per semester
Description: This mandatory fee is assessed if you have at least one credit of day scheduled (in-person lecture) credit courses or at least one credit of online/distance learning credit courses categorized as Day or Day/DCE. It may be charged for non-standard semester (part-of-term) classes if the charge has not already been assessed for a standard full semester class in that same semester. The fee is charged in both the fall and spring semesters only. It is not charged to (in-person lecture) evening classes, January intersession classes, or, summer classes. The student activity fee is used to support student activities and other costs associated with students, including clubs, club membership fees, events, musical and novelty performances, mandatory licensing fees, student travel, student conference fees, guest speakers, Orientation, Commencement, the ADN pinning, campus-wide events, student ID cards, the GCC Student Art Show and theater performances. The student activity fee is allocated by the GCC Student Senate.

Day vs. D/D Tuition & Fee Charges

From a student’s prospective, there is no difference between day and D/D charges. These day charges are categorized as such strictly for college accounting purposes. If your bill shows D/D charges, they are treated as regular day charges for billing purposes. However, D/D charges may not be eligible for certain types of tuition and fee waivers.

Evening vs. Day or Online Classes

Due to the transition from in-person to online classes since the COVID-19 pandemic, these charges showing on student bills may be confusing for some. However, from the student’s prospective, there is no difference in tuition and college service fee costs whether day, evening summer, or online. It’s just the way we categorize the funding source for instructors. Some instructors are funded by the state and others, such as evening or summer courses, are funded by the college. Unfortunately, since our transition from in-person classes to online classes, the categories don’t always make sense to students because they were initially set up for in-person classes. However, summer classes are always categorized as evening, regardless. Additionally, summer and online classes are always charged at the in-state rate per the fee schedule. The only difference is that online classes are also assessed an additional “Distance Learning” fee of $10 per credit.

Other fees may apply. Click here for more information.