If you haven't paid your tuition yet, you better hurry up.

Students who haven't paid by 5 p.m. today will be automatically dropped from their classes.

If only a portion of the tuition for their classes has been paid, the university will drop students from those classes they added last.

However, students who have been awarded financial aid but have not yet had it dispersed into their student accounts have nothing to worry about, said university spokeswoman Sharon Kha.

"You will not be charged a late fee and your classes will not be cancelled," she said.

Students unable to pay their tuition by Sept. 5 have two options offered to them by the university. First, for a $75 charge, students can enter into a tuition payment plan with the Bursar's Office.

With this plan, one third of the tuition must be paid for by Sept. 5. The next third is due a few weeks later, with the final third due a few weeks after that, Kha said.

The second option is an emergency loan available to students through the financial aid office. No immediate tuition payment is required for this loan.

Sept. 5 is also the last day to get a 100 percent tuition refund if students drop their classes.

Students last year could receive a 100 percent refund before the first day of class. After the first day, the percentage

students were refunded declined in increments until Oct. 19, the zero-percent-refund date. This year, the zero percent date has been moved up over a month to Sept. 15.

"Last year if you dropped a class after the first day, you might get 90 percent back, but when you signed up for another class you had to pre-pay the other 10 percent," explained Kha. "Both the university and the students had trouble figuring out how much was actually owed."

For any classes added between Sept. 5 and Sept. 15, students must pay the tuition charges for that class by the end of the day or else the class will be dropped from their schedule.

Furthermore, students will be charged a $50 late fee for any classes added between Sept. 5 and Sept. 15 unless they have paid for more credits than they have registered.

After Sept. 15, students adding classes must pay a $250 late fee whether or not they have unused funds in their student account.

Sept. 15 is the census day, where the state determines how much funding the university receives based on the number of classes students are registered for on that day.

The tuition payment schedule has changed substantially from previous years. Last year, tuition was due three weeks before school started. However, financial aid was not dispersed until 10 days before the first day of class, creating confusion for students as well as the university administration, Kha said.