Someone suggested that we look into Missour S&T for my son and I was surprised to see that their COA only covers 24 credit hours/year. I looked at the MechE curriculum and you need an average of over 16 credit hours/semester to graduate. I had to call the school to find out what the true cost would be. At an extra $1500/semester, that adds up to $12,000 more than the COA would lead you to believe you’re going to spend over 4 years. The woman I spoke to said most people spread it out over 5 years, so 12 credit hours/semester is average. The cost of an extra year is way more than just $12,000 though!
Has anyone ever come across this before? I thought it might be a good idea to compile a list of schools that do this. It seems a little sneaky and I expect that it’s easy to miss when you become overwhelmed with information.
And sometimes engineering courses have extra fees and labs have extra fees. Some websites I can’t even figure out the pricing system chart because they are so complicated I give up trying to figure out what add on charges will or won’t apply. I just figure I’ll be nickel and dimed to death so I don’t even bring the school up to my student and it moves off the considered list.
Missouri S&T’s 4-year graduation rate is only 21.2%, according to http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg06_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=819 . 6-year graduation rate is 64.0%, so it looks like, of the students who do graduate from that school (based on 6-year graduation rate), about a third finish in 4 years.
Still, it would be better if cost of attendance reflected the number of credits per semester needed to graduate in 4 (academic) years.
You have to pay attention if the schools charge by credit hours. Neither of schools my kid attended did. You could take extra courses and it didn’t cost a penny more. They didn’t have lab fees either, though my younger son seemed to spend a fortune on printing papers!
@mathmom - This is the first time I’ve seen a school set the COA for a limited number of credit hours. That’s why I’m wondering what other schools do this - and if it’s obvious when they do. I would hate tot tell my son that a school is within our budget and then find out after he’s registered for classes that it isn’t!
The COA might be the average for their students if most take only 12 credits. She’s not saying that the 5th year will only be $12000 more, but that the COA quoted is what you will need for each semester. They quote the COA per semester or year because that’s your goal for getting loans, grants, scholarships - you need to come up with it for that year. If your child can handle 15 credits per semester (and most can) you can pay just the $12,000, spread over the 4 years. Your child doesn’t have to do the 5 year plan but may make some money doing a co-op or internship that would be a good deal.
One of my daughters attends a school that you pay by the credit. The quote for the COA is for 15 credits per semester even though her program had her scheduled for 17.5 credits the first semester and a similar amount the second, plus lab fees for several of those classes, so about $2500 more per semester in tuition than I’d planned. It is the only criticism I’ve had of the school. I prefer the ‘pay for 12 credits and everything else is free’ plan. Other daughter is taking 19 this semester to graduate on time in the spring for the same price as 12 (actually, she gets more money because Florida bright futures pays per credit, so she gets the money for 19 credits).
Does anyone know of a list of schools that more generally charge per every credit hour without a cap? I agree with the concerns of OP. UAB is on my D’s list and that’s the deal. I’m extremely hesitant with this arrangement as she’s likely to take 17 credits plus per semester.
UAB lists both 12 credits per semester and 15 credits per semester costs:
https://www.uab.edu/students/paying-for-college/costs
For budget and cost comparison purposes, you may want to calculate the cost based on the expected number of credits per semester and use that.
Michigan State University used to. I’m very glad to see they’ve updated it since I graduated a few years ago: https://admissions.msu.edu/cost-aid/tuition-fees/default.aspx
University of Maine published a COA bases on 15 credits per semester when my daught applied. When we reviewed the bioengineering curriculum with honors program, every semester required more than 15 credits, most 18, one or two 20 to 21. When paying by credit hour this raised the cost quite a bit over four years. I don’t know if they still charge per credit. The other state schools my daughter applied to had a credit hour range associated with a full time tuition rate, as smallet scholarships actually went further as a result.
@romanigypsyeyes - I like that they give a cost calculator. If you know for certain how many credit hours you’re going to be taking, you can calculate how much additional it will cost. At roughly $1300/credit hour for oos students, going from 15 to 17 credits/semester adds up quickly!
I’m realizing I need to be more careful when looking at total costs as there might be a lot of schools that at first blush are within our budget, but in actuality may not be for a program that’s going to require close to 17 credit hours/semester for a 4 year graduation.