College is a constellation of Venmo requests — your roommate’s cut of the utilities, your half of an Uber ride, the ticket to your friend’s a capella performance that you don’t actually want to go to. On Wednesday, Venmo’s parent company PayPal announced that you will now be able to use its services to pay your tuition. Venmo and PayPal are partnering with the education payment platforms Illumia, Nelnet Campus Commerce, and TouchNet, which collectively serve thousands of colleges and universities, giving students and families another way to pay their tuition.
Yes, you can make one of the largest payments of your life on the same app where you can see that someone from high school is paying for “leaf emoji, fire emoji, smoke emoji,” whatever that could possibly mean. You might open the Venmo app when your friend gets you a latte, then think, “Oh, right, I haven’t paid my tuition yet! Let me do that real quick.” “For students and families, tuition is the single biggest financial decision they’ll navigate for higher education,” said Nelnet Campus Commerce president Jackie Strohbehn in a statement.
When eighteen-year-olds who make $10 per hour at the campus library confront their five-figure tuition bills, they’re really just wishing that someone would meet them at that moment with more flexibility and less friction. Kids these days don’t know how good they have it. We used to go into debt via unfamiliar payment portals, but now, you can deplete your bank account within the comfort of the Venmo or PayPal app.
Back in my day, we didn’t have an “integration [that] enables institutions to broaden choice and create a more frictionless payment experience for students and families,” to borrow TouchNet president Jeremy Loch’s phrasing. Gone are the days when students will lack access to “a seamless experience that delivers value for both tuition payers and institutions.”
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