Current Students
Employer-Sponsor Payment Option
The Department of Computer Science is pleased to offer the Employer-Sponsor Payment Option (ESPO), a payment plan, to qualified students who receive tuition reimbursement by their employers. The ESPO recognizes the employer sponsorship as pending payment. Students enrolled in the ESPO are allowed to defer payment of their tuition during the current quarter but are expected to settle their bill within 3 weeks after the end of the quarter.
Terms and Conditions
The Employer-Sponsor Payment Option (ESPO) is administered by the Department of Computer Science. Students are qualified to enroll in the ESPO if they meet the eligibility requirements.
The ESPO covers tuition for qualified courses only. All other charges (health fees, student activity fees, etc) are not covered by the ESPO. These charges are due as invoiced. Qualified courses include all CS and CSPP sequence courses with a number of 200 or higher as well as any other course offered by the University of Chicago that confers graduate credit and is approved by the Director of the CSPP as a qualified course for ESPO coverage.
The ESPO covers tuition only to the extent that the sponsoring employer reimburses the student. The student is responsible for paying the remaining balance according to the regular due dates. The extended due dates apply only to the ESPO covered tuition. ESPO does not apply to any Univeristy fees beyond tuition. Students are responsible for payment of all other University fees by the regular University deadlines, regardless of employer reimbursement.
Enrollment in the ESPO covers only one quarter at a time.
To enroll in the ESPO a student must complete and sign the ESPO Student Enrollment Form. In addition to that form the student’s employer must complete and sign the ESPO Sponsor Form. This process must be repeated for each quarter during which a student is interested in participating in the ESPO.
Bills and grades will be issued to the students only and not to the employers. It is the responsibility of the student to provide their employers with copies of any documents their employer may require.
Enrollment in the ESPO is free of charge, i.e., you do not have to pay a fee to enroll in the ESPO. Students must apply for ESPO enrollment no later than the end of the second day of the quarter.
Students enrolled in the ESPO are ultimately responsible for settling their bills with the University of Chicago by the deferred due date regardless of when their employer reimburses them. The Department of Computer Science will make reasonable efforts to report grades to students and sponsors in a timely fashion. However delays in grade reporting do not constitute an acceptable excuse for students to delay settling their bills with the University. Students who fail to meet their employers criteria for reimbursement (e.g. fail to earn a minimum quality grade expected by their employer) are still responsible for settling their bills with the University by the deferment period.
Students enrolled in the ESPO must ensure that payment is received in full by the deferred due dates. ESPO participants’ accounts will be assessed late fees, however these late fees will be waived once the participant has adhered to all ESPO requirements. If the due date is a holiday or vacation then payment must be received the first business day following the due date.
Delays in the U.S. Postal System are not acceptable excuses. Students should provide adequate time to ensure timely delivery of payment.
Any loan funds received by the Bursar’s Office for an ESPO program participant will not be refunded to the participant unless application of the loan funds creates a credit balance on the participant’s account. Upon payment by the participant’s employer, the Bursar’s Office will refund such loan funds to the participant.
Students who fail to pay the balance of their accounts by the due date will be automatically disqualified from further participation in the ESPO. Their registration for the current quarter will be cancelled, their account will be restricted, and their library and computer privileges will be suspended. Registration and privileges will be reinstated after receipt of payment in full, including all late fees that other wise would have been waived under the provisions of the ESPO.
Students who fail to pay by the regular due dates any portion of their balance that is not covered by the ESPO will be disqualified from further participation in the ESPO and may have their student privileges suspended according to University policies.
Students may not participate in the ESPO in the quarter during which they plan to graduate.
Forms
Download the necessary forms to enroll to the Employer-Sponsor Payment Option (ESPO). All forms are in PDF format. You will need Adobe’s Acrobat reader (click here to download the Reader).
If you would like to complete the forms online and print the completed form, use the following links:
You may also print these forms directly and complete them by hand.
All fields on the form must be completed.ÊIncomplete forms will not be processed.
Both forms must be submitted to Karin Czaplewski no later than the second day of each quarter. It is your responsibility to confirm that your forms have been received by the Department.
