By Madison Yang
After paying thousands of dollars in tuition, textbook fees and club expenses, one would think there would be no more financial requirements from the university before graduation. However, at Long Beach State, an additional price is charged to cross the finish line of your college career.
University officials recently emailed students planning to graduate in Spring 2025 to notify them that a $125 graduation application fee is due by Oct. 14, and if not paid by that deadline, it will increase to $135.
Amidst the CSU’s 6% annual tuition increase, this news shocked many CSULB students.
With all the costs of attending university – tuition, housing, transportation and supplies— fourth-year students, including 21-year-old computer engineering major George Elassal, did not expect an additional graduation fee.
“It kind of seemed, like, out of nowhere because we already pay $3,000-something for the tuition,” Elassal said.
According to CSULB’s commencement website, the application fee covers diploma creation and mailing, degree audit support and evaluation and the commencement ceremony.
The $125 fee does not account for the graduation cap and gown, which cost $50-$70 and must be purchased online. Graduation sashes and announcements also incur separate fees.
These extra costs are particularly disheartening for international students with higher out-of-state tuition and living expenses abroad.
22-year-old film major Sungbin Moon said she has had to manage many new finances since moving to Long Beach from South Korea three years ago, the start of her college career.
“I literally started from scratch– I had to buy a car… all my clothes… all the small things, like kitchen [utensils] and furniture,” Moon said.
Moon also has to consider the price of plane tickets to fly her parents out for the ceremony.
“I’m an international student, [so] I pay more– where does all this money go, then?” Moon said. “There are just so many things I have to worry about for graduation … it’s too much.”
The Spring 2025 graduation fee is a $25 increase from last year’s $100 fee for the 2023-24 academic year, which was also raised by $25 from the previous year’s $75.
After 2025, the graduation fee will be adjusted annually based on the Higher Education Price Index, which tracks inflation.
Joy Bahou, a 21-year-old human development major, said this price increase is unjustifiable and affects her consideration of Long Beach State as a graduate school option.
“I believe that it’s not necessary to keep increasing the costs when you’re getting the same amount of things needed for graduation each time, and I don’t see why there’s an increase in the price,” Bahou said.
Bahou noted that this extra fee does not only burden students’ academic finances but also impacts their essential living funds.
“There’s a lot of students on campus that have a lot of other expenses, other than student debt, that I think affects them on a daily basis,” Bahou said.
