Many college costs are hidden. Families will pick a college based partly on its cost, but after choosing the school and sending in their enrollment deposit, they get a tuition bill full of added fees, like “new undergraduate student fee” of $350, “mandatory student fee UG” of $2125, and various “course materials fees,” at one Virginia state university.
Health insurance can also add thousands of dollars to the cost of a student’s college education.
Young people seldom get seriously ill, so most of them don’t need health insurance. But some colleges now automatically sign students up for health insurance coverage, at a cost of thousands of dollars per year, unless the students showed they already had comparable insurance, and acted swiftly to seek a waiver. Campus Reform describes how many
Texas universities are rolling out their updated health insurance requirements for the 2025–2026 academic year, and the rules vary widely depending on whether a school is public or private.
For students and parents, these policies can have a major financial impact. Annual premiums range from about $2,300 to over $4,200, and waiver deadlines are often early in the semester, leaving little room for error. Missing the waiver deadline typically results in automatic enrollment in the school’s plan—an expense that might be difficult to reverse.
The requirements also reflect broader differences between public and private higher education in Texas….Public universities—especially large state systems like the University of Texas, Texas A&M, and University of Houston—tend to limit mandatory health insurance to international students and, in some cases, students in health science programs….
Private universities in Texas generally apply health insurance requirements to a broader range of students, often including all undergraduates enrolled in a certain number of credit hours. Waiver policies tend to allow opt-outs only with proof of comparable coverage, and costs vary widely between institutions.
