Also, and this may have been mentioned here, but don’t forget to add in all of the fees, which are going to vary greatly depending on school and program. For instance, some schools include the cost of books while others don’t and books can be very expensive, even with digital options.
One school we looked at had a hard cap for “books”. All the books are digital and the cap was like $300 per semester.
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It’s very common at state schools. I have not come across it at private schools, although that doesn’t mean none of them do it. But state schools very often use 12 credits for their advertised price. This is the minimum number of credits that can be considered full time for financial aid purposes. And yes, these schools advertise their tuition as “per credit hour,” so it shouldn’t be a surprise.
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Thank you for explaining. We looked at LACs primarily so most of the schools my children looked at didn’t even have ‘credit hours’ - many of them use a “1 credit per full time class” system, with music lessons, Phys Ed and the like being between 0.25 and 0.5 credits each.
Books cost can vary a lot.
I bought for one kid in 4 years one book for $10. For another in private we buy astronomical number of books and electronic versions are not allowed!
One class demanded 6 books for a semester. We had to buy 2 books for dance class!