Utilizing the American Opportunity Tax Credit to its Potential

You can get a partial AOTC.
The first $2,000 of the credit is 100% of qualified education expenses.
So if you have $1,300 in tuition and book expenses you could get a credit of $1,300.
I wouldn’t spend $700 more on expenses that are probably not qualified for AOTC to get $700 more back, that’s a zero sum game.