How to Read University Tuition Fees

The cost of higher education is an important factor in making a decision to go to a certain university. Universities put their tuition rates online for current and prospective students to analyze the cost of going to school there. Universities often display their tuition rates differently, forcing users to do a little numbers crunching to get a number they can use to compare costs. Figuring out the tuition rate per credit hour provides a key by which to compare the costs of different universities.

Instructions

    • 1

      Go to the university's website, and navigate to the page for financial aid, the registrar or the bursar's office. These are typically where you will find tuition information.

    • 2

      Navigate to the year that interests you. This is typically done with a drop-down menu that lists previous and future years.

    • 3

      View the tuition amounts. These are are typically presented in a chart and broken up by semester and rates for in-state and out-of-state students. Find the column or row associated with the semester that you are interested in and the column or row that pertains to your residency.

    • 4

      Divide the amount of tuition per semester with the number of credit hours that are offered for that term. For example, if the school charges $10,000 per semester for 10 credit hours, then the tuition rate per credit rate is $1,000. Generally, credit hours are the number of hours a class will be taught during a given week. This is important because this is the amount of service that a student should expect from each class.

    • 5

      If you are trying to decide which university to attend based on cost, compare the tuition rate per credit hour among the schools. Keep in mind that some schools are on trimesters. In that case, although the cost per credit hour might be seem to be smaller, remember that you will be paying for three semesters, instead of two, each year.

    • 6

      Examine the cost of housing, books, transportation and fees. Universities often provide an estimate of these costs on the same Web page as tuition information. The amount of these expenses should also be taken into account when analyzing tuition rates.

Learnify Hub © www.0685.com All Rights Reserved