Tuition Surcharge FAQs

Approved by the Board of Regents, the 2025-26 surcharge is $1,360 per semester for full time Minnesota Carlson students. Learn more about tuition costs.

The amount of state support dollars allocated to Carlson has decreased over time while at the same time, the number of students admitted to the Carlson School has increased. The tuition surcharge allows Carlson to continue to invest in outstanding faculty despite the loss of state funding. 

Funds raised by the tuition surcharge are used to support the cost of instruction. They are invested directly into the Carlson Undergraduate Program to support innovative learning environments & experiential teaching, reduce the class size in core courses, and hire and retain exceptional instructional faculty to teach in the Undergraduate Program. The surcharge is similar to tuition revenue.

Pell-eligible and UPromise students enrolled full time (12 credits and 13 credits, respectively) are eligible for the surcharge offset (i.e. the surcharge is waived).

All colleges at the University of Minnesota have a collegiate fee. Only Minnesota Carlson and the College of Science & Engineering have a tuition surcharge.

The Carlson collegiate fee is $580 per semester for students taking 9 or more credits and $290 per semester for students taking fewer than 9 credits. View more about the various college fees at One Stop.

Collegiate fees help fund student support services, such as advising, student engagement activities, career center (partially), study abroad support, and technology support (i.e. computer lab support, printing). The surcharge is considered tuition and goes toward instructional cost.

All Carlson undergraduate students are assessed the surcharge. However, about 25% of Carlson students (Pell-eligible and U Promise scholarship recipients) receive the offset and do not pay the surcharge.

Yes. The surcharge is based on your college of enrollment, not on the coursework you are taking.

The program fees for Learning Abroad Center (LAC) semester-length programs do not include the surcharge. 

Students who study abroad on a Carlson Global Institute (CGI) semester or summer-length exchange program pay the surcharge while they are abroad (if you pay it in MN). You are essentially paying University of Minnesota tuition while attending a partner school. 

Short-term programs are folded into the semester tuition cost, which includes the surcharge.