Systems and Procedures
A Division of The Office of Budget and Finance
A Division of The Office of Budget and Finance
Applicants interested in receiving an advanced degree, (master's, doctoral, or teacher certification) beyond the baccalaureate degree, must complete an online application and any supplemental materials required by the graduate program. To apply to a graduate program at Penn State, an applicant must check the instructions and requirements on each program's individual web site. Programs' sites can be located on the Graduate School Bulletins web page.
A non-refundable fee is required for processing and evaluating applications for admission to the Graduate School. All fees are approved by the Associate Vice President for Budget and Finance.
Applicants may pay the non-refundable application fee by one of the following methods:
An application will not be processed until the fee is either paid or a fee waiver applied according to policies/procedures established by the Graduate School.
Applicants interested in obtaining a graduate certificate or taking graduate-level courses for personal enrichment, professional development, instructional II public education certification, or later want to apply for degree status must seek admission as a graduate non-degree student by accessing the online application on the Graduate Admissions web page.
The non-refundable fee is required for processing and evaluating applications for non-degree admission to the Graduate School. All fees are approved by the Associate Vice President for Budget and Finance.
Applicants may pay the non-refundable application fee by one of the following methods:
An application will not be processed until the fee is either paid or a fee waiver applied according to policies/procedures established by the Graduate School.
This procedure outlines the processing of fee payments and necessary controls to account for the income received.
Applicants apply for admission via the Graduate School on-line application. The application data is uploaded into the student information system, LionPATH, through a nightly batch procedure. Graduate Enrollment Services (GES) uses a reporting tool to review all outstanding applications. If the applicant paid the fee on-line using a credit card, a credit card payment record is completed within the system. If the applicant does not pay the fee with a credit card and chooses to pay by check or money order through the mail, Graduate Enrollment Services still sees the application in their reports; however, the finalized payment record is not completed, and programs cannot view the application in the Graduate Admissions Decision System (GRADS). After the fee is received the GES administrative support coordinator updates the paid status in GRADS and forwards the check to the Graduate School Finance Office to deposit, The Graduate School Finance Office deposits the check, then the application is visible at the program level.
Credit card payments may only be used to pay the fee during submission of the on-line application. The credit card transaction is processed through GRADS when the applicant applies for admission. The Graduate School Finance Office reconciles the credit card payment using the Converge merchant system with the submitted application.
All correctly remitted payments are endorsed according to University Policy FN01 Cash Revenues and the application status is changed to paid in GRADS. A Journal Entry for Incoming Funds (formerly Cash Deposit Journal Entry) is prepared, and funds are credited to the appropriate budgets.
If the fee is being waived by the Office of Graduate Educational Equity, a notation is put on the application fee payment record and one of the following codes in entered: "WD" for OGEEP, "WM" for McNair Scholars, "WS" for SROP participants, and "WG" for other waivers that are granted on a case-by-case basis by the Graduate School.
If the fee is being paid by the applicant’s intended program of study, the applicant will have entered a fee waiver code issued by the graduate program at the time of application submission and the graduate program will have to approve the utilization of the waiver code. Programs must have submitted a signed Terms of Agreement to the Graduate School before being given the capability to initiate fee waivers.
A Journal Entry for Incoming Funds (formerly Cash Deposit Journal Entry) is prepared. The fees are recorded to the following account numbers:
All journal entries are approved by the Graduate School Finance Office. All created reports will be filed by date for future reference. In accordance with the Financial Officer Procedures Manual, the Financial Officer will periodically verify the numeric sequence of all Pre-numbered Receipts issued by the designee.
To facilitate processing of the large volume of applications, all check payments received will be deposited within 48 hours. (This is a specific exception to the daily deposit requirements of University Policy FN01 Cash Revenues and Procedure FN2005 Processing Cash Revenues because of the low dollar amount of individual check and cash payments received and the small area over which applications must be transported for subsequent processing).
Collection, deposit, and reconciliation of application fees at Harrisburg and the Great Valley Campus are the responsibility of the Financial Officer (at Harrisburg) and Business Manager (at Great Valley Campus), respectively.
When checks received for payment of application fees fail to clear the bank, Accounting Operations will email a copy of the returned check to the Graduate School Finance Office. GRADS record will be changed from "paid" to "billed" to prevent the student from being admitted to the Graduate School and from registering for classes. When payment is received, the remittance will be reviewed and prepared for deposit. Once the repayment successfully clears, the repayment date will be noted. See Procedure FN2002 Processing Returned Checks for complete details on this business process.
A refund of the application fee can be issued to the applicant as deemed appropriate by Graduate Enrollment Services, e.g., mishandling of an application due to an administrative oversight. A Graduate Enrollment Services (GES) admissions coordinator will collect the appropriate applicant information and forward such to the Graduate School Finance Office. Additionally, a notation will be added on the GRADS comment screen that a refund was requested.
If the fee was paid by credit card, the Graduate School Finance Office issues a credit via the e-Commerce system.
If the fee was paid by check or money order, a Refund Request Form is completed by the Graduate School Finance Office.
The Financial Officer is responsible for ensuring that procedures pertaining to the accountability and safeguarding of all cash receipts, cash funds, and other assets are established and followed in accordance with approved University policies and procedures. Regular audits relating to advances, cash, travel, equipment accountability, and other expenditures provide a means to protect University assets. The Financial Officer is responsible for collaborating with Internal Audit when audits are being performed in the administrative area. Audits relating to sponsored activities or other audits performed by external auditors may also be performed. The Financial Officer would also be responsible for collaborating with the external auditor and/or a central university office related to these procedures.
University Records must be retained and managed in accordance with Policy AD35 University Archives and Records Management and the University's Records Retention Schedules that have been approved by the Records Management Advisory Committee (RMAC), the Office of General Counsel, and Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff. These Records Retention Schedules are derived from - or based upon - federal, state, and local statutes or regulations (i.e., Federal Acquisition Regulations, the OMB Uniform Guidance, Internal Revenue Service, and other regulations governing the auditability and retention of financial records), University Policy, industry standards, and business needs. All University Records must be maintained in such a manner to provide ease of access, establish a suitable audit trail for all transactions, and to be reviewed prior to disposition.
University Records and Transitory/Disposable Records are defined below. See Policy AD35, Definition of Terms for additional information.
Upon completion of the retention period, University Records must be disposed of via secure destruction or transfer to University Archives, unless an exception to the disposition process set forth below applies. In many cases, retention periods and disposition methods may be generally determined by comparing the type of record (i.e., reports, correspondence, etc.) to similar records series with known retention periods listed on the Records Retention Schedule. If the disposition method for University Records states "Review by Archives" on the Records Retention Schedule, the Unit responsible for those records should consult the University Archivist for a final determination of disposition. For University Records that must be securely destroyed, units may arrange for shredding services by either contacting the Blue/White Shredding Program or the Inactive Records Center (IRC).
Exceptions to the disposition process are as follows:
To safeguard the privacy of individuals, records that contain Personally Identifiable Information (PII), as defined in University Policy, AD53 Privacy Policy, or student records, as defined in University Policy, AD11 Confidentiality of Student Records, must be securely destroyed beyond recovery. For additional information regarding privacy and the protection of an individual's personal information, see Policy AD53 Privacy Policy.
Additional questions may be directed to the Office of Records Management.
There are no exhibits associated with this procedure.
For questions or additional details, please contact the Graduate School, at GSFIN@psu.edu.
To request changes to this procedure please contact the Office of Systems and Procedures by submitting a GURU Technical Support Request Form.
June 3, 2024
Revision 4 - 6/3/2024 - Updated document to reflect current SIMBA business processes.