Frequently Asked Questions

There are two main portals through which parents/guardians can gain access to student records, as follows:

1. my.SMU (Portal to view student records, such as student financial information, financial aid, academic records, etc.)
FERPA: The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) states that no personally identifiable information from a student's education record will be disclosed to any third party without written consent from the student. Students can grant records access to their parents by following instructions found here. Once a student grants access to a parent, the parent will receive instructions on how to access my.SMU with their own credentials.

2. SMUpay (Billing and payment portal)
Make a Payment as an Authorized Payer: Parents and other persons who are authorized by the student to make payments on his or her behalf can do so through the SMUpay payment portal. To become an authorized payer, a student must add the authorized payer by following instructions found here. Once a student adds an authorized payer, the authorized payer will receive instructions on how to access SMUpay with their own credentials.

If you have a past due balance on your account, you are subject to a past due fee of 1.5% per month on the unpaid balance. For example, if you have a balance of $20,000.00 and you do not pay it by the payment due date, you are subject to a past due fee of $300.00. Past due fees are non-reversible and non-disputable.

The Current Balance you see in SMUpay includes all unpaid billed charges as well as recently posted charges that have not yet been billed. If you are enrolled in more than one term, the current balance will include charges for all terms. The best way to get the up-to-the-minute balance by term is to view the Account Summary in my.SMU.

In order for parents/guardians to receive emailed billing notifications, their student must add the parent/guardian as an authorized payer in the SMUpay portal. Instructions for a student to add an authorized payer can be found here.

Important: Please see the FAQ titled “As a parent/guardian, how can I access my student’s account?”, above for more information on accessing your student’s records.

In order to view how much you owe for a particular term, it is important that you view the PDF version of your statement, in order to have a more complete view of what you need to pay online. The PDF statement will show, and take into account, any anticipated aid that you have coming. To view your PDF statement, please click the blue link titled “View Account Details” to right of Student Account Tuition/Fees, Room/Board, Parking Permit, Health Ins. Then, select the Statement History tab and click on your most recent statement. Once your financial aid awards are posted to your student account (typically 10 days prior to the first day of classes or later), the Current Balance will update to reflect the financial aid awards.

If you have any questions about mandatory health insurance, please contact the Dr. Bob Smith Health Center at studenthealthinsurance@smu.edu. Please include your SMU Student ID on all correspondence. For more information please visit the Student Health Insurance webpage.

If your employer requires various pieces of information that are not found on your invoice, you can easily compile a number of documents that are available to you through your student portal and on the Bursar’s website. Together, these documents typically suffice for purposes of employer tuition reimbursement. For your convenience, we have assembled a sample reimbursement packet here.

1. Save/Print your invoice by following the navigation below:

• Login to your student portal at my.smu.edu and select Students
• Select Financials from the left-hand menu
• Select SMU Pay
• Select View Account Details
• Select Statement History
• Download the PDF of your bill detailing the appropriate tuition charges and save/print for your records

2. Save/Print your class schedule by following the navigation below:

• Login to your student portal at my.smu.edu and select Students
• Select Schedule from the left-hand menu
• Select the appropriate term from the drop-down menu
• Select the print icon from the right-hand menu to save/print a copy for your records

3. Save/Print your class details (class name and number of credit hours per course) by following the navigation below:

• Navigate to the SMU catalog
• On the drop down menu on the upper right hand side of the screen, select the appropriate catalog and year
• In the Search Catalog field on the upper left of the screen, enter the name of one of your courses and click the magnifying glass icon to display results
• Select the appropriate course
• Select the print icon for each enrolled course and save/print for your records. This printout will show the class name, description and the number of credit hours for the course

4. Save/Print the Cost of Attendance by following the navigation below.

• Navigate to SMU’s Cost of Attendance website
• Select Undergraduate or Graduate under Tuition and Fees
• Select your specific school of study to un-collapse charges

The Current Balance includes all charges that have not been paid, including current charges that have not yet been billed. The Last Statement Amount represents a snapshot in time and is not reflective of charges that were posted to your account after the most recent statement (bill) was generated. Since there are times throughout the year that you may have active enrollment in multiple terms, such as in late spring when students are able to enroll for May term, summer term(s), August term and fall term, we highly encourage you to view your account balances through my.SMU, where you will see a more clear breakdown of outstanding balances per term. For the payment due date for each term, you can either look on the pdf copy of the bill or on our payment due date page.

If you are a parent or guardian, your student will need to provide access to my.SMU by following the instructions found here.

Not necessarily. Only payments that are made online, through SMUpay, will appear in the “Transaction Details” in SMUpay. For this reason, among others, it is important that you view your account details through my.SMU. In my.SMU, you will be able to see ALL transactions, including payments made by paper check (i.e. personal checks, cashier’s checks, 529 Plan checks, etc.). Parents/guardians who need access to my.SMU will need their student to grant them access. Instructions for students to grant access can be found here. Instructions for parents/guardians can be found here.

When a student registers for classes, charges are posted on the day they register for the classes. This being said, if a student registers for two classes on one day and three classes the next day, the student will see two lines of tuition and two lines of the general student fee.

We have compiled a set of frequently asked questions on our Payment Plan Options page. Once you are on that webpage, please scroll to the bottom of the screen and select the last item titled “Payment Plan FAQs”.

Please visit our Payment Plan Options page for this and more information regarding our payment plan offerings. On this page, you will find an example of how one can calculate the payment plan. If you still have questions about payment plans, please contact Tiffany Hawkins, our Payment Plan Manager at thawkins@smu.edu or 214-914-4527.

Many financial institutions offer college savings programs that enable families to save money for a child’s college education.  Each financial institution has separate rules and regulations that govern how funds may be used and how they are sent to SMU.  Please contact your provider to determine how and when to request release of funds, as well as what documents you will need to support your request. Payments should be mailed to:

IMPORTANT: If you are mailing us a check, money order or cashier’s check through the U.S. Postal Service, please mail it to our P.O. Box address listed below in order to avoid potential mail delays. Only use our physical street address when sending us your payment through courier/express delivery. We recommend the use of courier/express delivery because it will enable you to track the item. Payments must include the student’s name and SMU ID.

United States Postal Service:
Southern Methodist University
Student Financial Services
P.O. Box 750181
Dallas, TX  75275

Overnight/Courier:
Southern Methodist University
Student Financial Services
6185 Airline Road
Dallas, TX 75205

IMPORTANT:  Providers must include the student’s name and SMU ID number to ensure timely processing.  Please allow up to ten (10) business days from the date that your provider sends payment for receipt and processing by SMU.

You can view the latest Financial Information Bulletin here.

We accept online personal check and credit card payments, as well as wire transfers. Electronic check payments can be made from your personal bank checking or savings account without charge. We accept credit card payments using MasterCard, American Express, and Discover Card. VISA is now accepted for payments made to the Student Account for tuition and fees and for NelNet payment plans ONLY. A different payment profile that does not use VISA can be used for payments made to your Miscellaneous Account. Please note that there is a 2.85% non-refundable service charge assessed to all credit card payments imposed by our third party service. Instructions for wire transfer payments can be found in our Payment Methods page.

We also accept paper checks, money orders and cashier's checks. The mailing address for payments can be found here.

Please note: You are subject to a late payment fee if you have not signed up for a payment plan by payment due date of each term. Payment plans are only available for spring, fall and summer terms. They are not available for May term, August term, winter term or Jan term.

Payments can be made online by electronic check or credit card:

• Students can log into my.SMU then click on the link to SMUpay.
• Parents and other authorized payers log into SMUpay to view bills and make payments.

There is no fee charged for making an e-check payment online. Electronic credit card payments are processed by a third party and are charged a non-refundable convenience fee of 2.85%. Payments made online will post immediately in most cases.

Payments can be mailed to:

IMPORTANT: If you are mailing us a check, money order or cashier’s check through the U.S. Postal Service, please mail it to our P.O. Box address listed below in order to avoid potential mail delays. Only use our physical street address when sending us your payment through courier/express delivery. We recommend the use of courier/express delivery because it will enable you to track the item. Payments must include the student’s name and SMU ID.

United States Postal Service:
Southern Methodist University
Office of the University Bursar
P.O. Box 750181
Dallas, TX  75275

Overnight/Courier:
Southern Methodist University
Office of the University Bursar
6185 Airline Road
Dallas, TX 75205

Payments can be wired using:

• Convera (formerly known as Western Union) - domestic and international
• Flywire - international only

Students will need to login into SMUpay to initiate the wire transfer process.

Payments can be made in person:

Payments can be made in person at the Laura Lee Blanton Student Services Building on the First Floor. Office hours are 9:00 a.m-4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10am- 4pm on Wednesday.

• Try clearing the cache (browsing history) following the instructions located here.
• Try closing all windows and open your browser and try to login again. Sometimes having too many windows open could cause difficulty logging in to SMUpay.
• If you have your computer set to another language, this will cause functionality problems. Please set your computer to English.
• Please make sure to turn off the pop-up blocker on your web browser.

Payment due dates for each term are on our websites's Payment Due Dates page.

Balances on the Student account are billed according to the term while Miscellaneous account charges are billed monthly if applicable.

Students can access their bill by logging in to my.SMU and clicking on the link to SMUpay. Please be aware that bill notifications are emailed to students’ email addresses each time a bill is generated.

Parents/guardians can access their student’s bill by following the instructions in the FAQ titled “As a parent, how can I access my student's account?”, above. Students can set up an authorized payer by following the instructions found here.

Only accepted loans, grants and scholarships are listed on the invoice. If your aid is not all listed, you need to first check your my.SMU Student Dashboard to make sure you have accepted all the aid. If you have and you still do not see it on your invoice you may then contact Student Financial Services.

IMPORTANT:  Please sign up for direct deposit so you can receive your refund quickly and securely! Refunds that are sent by paper check take longer to reach you and are subject to a minimum two week waiting period before we will reissue a replacement check in the event your refund check is lost in the mail.

Refunds are processed continuously throughout the year. Students do not initiate their refunds.

If the proceeds from student loans have been received by SMU prior to the first day of class and the student is eligible for a refund, the Office of the University Bursar will automatically begin processing refunds at the time the proceeds are posted to the student's tuition account. Federal regulations state that the earliest date a refund can be processed, if the funds are on the tuition account, is 10 days prior to the first day of class. Additionally, federal regulations require SMU to process refunds within 14 days from the first day of class of a student's primary academic career. If loans are received after the first day of class, students need to allow 14 days from the date the proceeds are applied to the tuition account for a refund to be processed.

Refunds for students with Payment Plans or PLUS loans will be made payable to the bill payer or parent and mailed to the address on record. PLUS loan refunds may be made payable to the student if the borrower submits the PLUS Loan Release Form obtained from the Bursar's Office.

Refunds are processed via credit card, direct deposit to the student's bank account, or mailed. If mailed, refunds are sent to the home address in my.SMU. 

Refunds for students with a Payment Plan or PLUS loan will be made payable to the bill payer or parent. Plus loan refunds can be made payable to the student if the borrower submits a PLUS loan release form to the Bursar's office.

Personal Payments: refunds from personal payments (e-checks or check payments mailed in) are processed two weeks after the date the payment was applied to the account by direct deposit or paper check.

Any credit on a student account that results from a student loan will be refunded to the student.

If you have a financial hold, the only way to clear it is to pay it.

Please note that some holds are placed by other departments and will need to be cleared through that specific department. Financial holds can be cleared automatically, real-time, by paying the full account balance online at my.SMU. Payments made in person at our physical office location will clear overnight.

SMU permits students to have purchases from the SMU Bookstore charged directly to their miscellaneous student accounts. Charges are billed monthly and are due on the date provided on the bill. Students with outstanding balances on their miscellaneous student account will be charged 1.5 percent monthly on the past due balance. Students who have an outstanding balance during their tenure at SMU may lose their privilege to make direct charges from the SMU Bookstore. Repeated delinquencies on the account and/or returned checks will remove the privilege for the student for the remainder of his/her matriculation at SMU.

1098T forms are mailed in January to all student's home address. Please make sure your home address and mail address are current. The information on this form reflects the amounts posted to the student account including tuition and related fees, scholarships, grants, and Third Party Billing credits that were posted in the tax year (January 1 through December 31 of that year). Please note that the 1098-T form will not include your personal payments. You will need to reference your personal financial records to review your personal payments to SMU.

For information regarding this form or for another copy of this form, please go to https://heartland.ecsi.net.  ECSI is our current servicer as of 2014. 

Prior year tax forms [2013 and back] provided by TCRS are no longer available.

Why does the amount on my 1098-T seem less than the charges from last year?

Please also note that Jan Term and Spring Term charges are reported on the tax form in the tax year when students charges are posted.  Only items posted to the student account from January 1 through December 31 of that year are on that tax year form.

According to the United States Internal Revenue Code, the amount of financial aid provided to a non-resident alien student that exceeds qualified tuition and fees is scholarship/fellowship income and subject to mandatory 14% tax withholding. The tax due on the scholarship/fellowship income is recorded on the SMU student account as “U.S. Tax Withholding.” For additional information on your U.S. Withholding charge and/or a 1042-S form, please email foreignnationals@smu.edu.

The general student fee is part of the student contribution to the cost of the University experience at SMU. Generally, tuition is used to fund academic costs. Student fees fund program and overhead costs. It is important to note, however, that tuition and fees do not finance the entire cost of educating students. Gifts, endowment revenue, other program and net auxiliary activity revenue are also needed to balance the University's operating budget.

A portion of the student fee is distributed to the Student Association for its programs. The remainder of the fee is used to help fund other University expenses including, but not limited to, the following:

Student Center operations
Student Center maintenance fund
Student tickets to intercollegiate athletics events
Lighting on campus
Call boxes
The Mustang Express
Dedman Center maintenance
Library maintenance
Security
Custodial services
Grounds maintenance
Deferred maintenance

The distance learning and regular student fee is part of the student contribution to the cost of the University experience at SMU. The regular student fee covers many items that contribute to the on-campus student experience.  The distance learning fee is less than the regular student fee due to the remote experience not utilizing as much of the regular SMU campus. Distance learning does not result in the same on-campus experience, however, there are costs associated with distance learning funded in part from the distance learning fee.  Generally, tuition is used to fund instructional/academic expenses. The distance learning fee is used to fund University expenses including, but not limited to:

•    design and project management of distance learning courses;
•    video/Media production studio equipment;
•    hardware/software used to support the delivery of distance learning classes;
•    online facilities infrastructure costs;
•    and other costs associated with the use of remote facilities.

A facility charge is assessed by SMU Residence Life & Student Housing (RLSH) when it is determined that a student’s room needs repairs, post move-out cleaning and furniture removal or other items. The Office of the University Bursar does not have access to any details beyond what a student sees on their bill. Therefore, if you have any specific questions about a facility charge, please contact RLSH directly at housing@smu.edu or 214-768-2407.

For university-wide information regarding COVID-19, please visit the SMU COVID-19 Updates page.