Charges and Deposits to a Student Account

UW–Madison departments may need to post charges, payments or deposits to a student account in the Student Information System (SIS). 


These transactions may include credit by exam charges, special course fees, or enrollment deposits or forfeitures.

Posting charges to a student account

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Special course fees

Special course fees are non-standard tuition and fees charges that are assessed to student accounts. UW–Madison may assess special course fees to pay for certain instructional costs that are not covered by the regular instructional tuition and fees. Review the UW System policy for detailed descriptions of what can be considered a special course fee.

Special course fees must be approved by Dean’s Office and the Associate Vice Chancellor of Finance and Administration. For more information regarding how to set up a special course fee, contact Andrew Johnson in the Madison Budget Office.

View Special Course Fee Policy

Non-credit summer segregated fees

Various departments offer non-credit summer programs to non-UW students. Participating departments are charged segregated fees for these students to allow them access to services on campus. These students will not have a SIS account.

Departments complete and submit an Internal Work Order to the Bursar’s Office. The Bursar’s Office will then move the money from the department’s funding string into the various segregated fee funds.

Evening MBA cohort charges

The Evening MBA program will submit Cohort charges to the Bursar’s Office to be applied to the student account.  

Use the Evening MBA Cohort charges form

Credit by exam

Also known as “Credit by Department Examination”, this is one opportunity for undergraduate students to demonstrate mastery of material by taking an exam, instead of taking an entire course. The material is equivalent to what would be learned in a specific UW–Madison course.

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Credit by exam policy

Credit by Exam is a process intended primarily for students that have acquired knowledge and competency in a specific subject in high school, through prerequisite courses, or for transfer students who did not get transfer credits for a specific course taken at another institution, and who desire to establish college credits for a course.

Refer to the UW-1005 Credit by Departmental Exam Policy for additional information.

Program benefits

Students have a low-cost option for earning credit for skills and knowledge they already possess. They have the opportunity to quickly move on to more challenging and enriching courses.

The University benefits by freeing up seats in courses that are in demand and by supporting a student’s timely progress to degree.

Approval process

A department must be approved in order to offer credit by examination for a specific course. The approval process is handled through the existing course approval governance process. Credit by exam for a course is proposed and approved by the subject owner (department) of the course and by any cross-listed subjects. The proposal is reviewed by the school or college, then by the University Curriculum Committee.

Once a course is approved, it is listed on a master list of all courses available for credit by exam. This process serves as the only avenue for awarding departmental credit other than by offering for-credit courses.

Departments are required to review and assess all credit by exam opportunities at least once every 3 years to determine whether the exam continues to match the content of the course. For courses that are not reviewed, approval will expire and they will be removed from the list of courses available for credit by exam. Anytime the equivalent course is changed through the course change proposal process, the examination must be evaluated to make sure it is still aligned with the learning outcomes of the course.

Cost

Student taking a credit by exam will be charged $135 to take the exam. This fee is non-refundable and will be posted to the student account and included on the student’s eBill.

Submit credit by exam charges

Posting enrollment deposits or payments

Deposits or payments may be collected by various programs or departments across campus. These deposits or payments must then be submitted to the Bursar’s Office for posting to the Student Information System (SIS).

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Enrollment deposits and deposit forfeiture

Enrollment deposits are collected by various programs across campus (such as School of Business, Physical Therapy, Pharmacy, and Law School). These deposits are then submitted to the Bursar’s Office to credit to the student account. The deposit is applied towards the student account balance upon enrollment. 

If a student fails to enroll and their enrollment deposit is forfeited, the program must submit the form to remove the deposit from the student account.

Select the appropriate program form:

Education Outreach Partnerships payments

Education Outreach and Partnerships (EOP) offers both credit and non-credit courses. Education Outreach and Partnerships accepts credit and check payments directly from these students enrolled in these courses. For students taking courses for credit, the payment is applied to the student account through the Bursar’s Office.

Use the EOP payment form

Freshman enrollment deposit (informational only)

  • Incoming freshman are required to submit a $100.00 deposit to confirm their intent to enroll at UW–Madison.
  • This deposit is collected by the UW–Madison Admissions office.
  • The $100.00 payment remains on deposit on the Student Account until the first term of enrollment. The deposit is applied towards the student account balance upon enrollment.  The student’s first eBill will reflect a credit for the amount of the enrollment deposit.
  • The deposit is forfeited if the student does not attend UW–Madison.

Key deposits and key refunds

In some situations, departments give out building keys to students. The keys require a deposit that is refunded upon return of the key. Departments may give out keys at the same time that the key deposit form is uploaded.

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Charging and refunding a key deposit

To charge a key deposit:

  1. The department must submit the key deposit form via Bursar’s Secure upload. Select ‘Key Deposit’ and and enter the Student Campus ID/Name and the key deposit amount.
  2. The key deposit fee will be charged to the Student Account and will appear on the student’s eBill.
  3. Students can then pay the key deposit charge using any of the accepted payment methods.

To refund a key deposit:

  1. Department must submit the key deposit form via Bursar’s Secure upload. Select ‘Refund of Key Deposit’ and enter the Student Campus ID/Name and the key refund amount. If you have completed Part A of the blue key deposit card, please send it to the Bursar’s Office by interdepartmental mail.  The student refund will be processed through the Student Account via eRefund or paper check. If the original key deposit was made using the new upload process, Part A of the blue key deposit card is not required. 
  2. The key deposit refund will be credited to the Student Account.
  3. The balance will be refunded to the student via eRefund or paper check.

Submit the Key Deposit  Form

Forfeiture of a key deposit

Departments may determine a student has forfeited their key deposit. Departments can request a key deposit forfeiture:

  1. Send “Section A” of their blue card(s) to the Bursar’s Office.
  2. Submit the key deposit form via Bursar’s Secure upload. Select ‘Forfeiture of Key Deposit’ and enter the Student Campus ID/Name and the key deposit forfeiture amount.
  3. Email the Funding String information where the forfeited funds should be deposited to tuition@bussvc.wisc.edu.
  4. The Bursar’s office will review the request and process a non-salary cost transfer.

Contact the Bursar’s Office at tuition@bussvc.wisc.edu for questions on requesting a key deposit forfeiture.

Submit the Key Deposit Form

Please note: The Bursar’s Office will no longer be handling key deposits for faculty and staff. Thus, the departments will need to determine how they wish to handle faculty and staff key deposits going forward.

For those faculty/staff who have previously paid a key deposit and have a blue card, we will continue to process those refunds and forfeitures. The department will need to send over the completed part A of the blue card, and email tuition@bussvc.wisc.edu with a scan of the card, and the faculty/staff member’s current address for the refund check to be mailed to.

Contact

Find the Bursar's Office

333 East Campus Mall #10501
Madison, WI 53715-1383

Call the Bursar's Office

(608) 262-3611