<p>Would it take off a whole year's worth of money?</p>
<p>no, because you would still be theoretically paying for 4 years worth of credits (unless you have enough AP credits to cover a whole year’s worth of classes). you would only be saving the cost of one year’s room and board and meal plan.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Depends on whether the school charges tuition by the credit, or by the semester or quarter. If the latter, then graduating N semesters or quarters early saves that many semesters or quarters of tuition, even if you take overload schedules while you are there.</p>
<p>interesting, i’ve never heard of such a system before</p>
<p>Most top universities I know of charge by term (Ivy Leagues, UCs, small LACs, Stanford, MIT, etc.) Correct me if I am wrong about this.</p>
<p>Charging by credit appears to be more common when there are a lot of part time students. Here in California, the community colleges charge by credit. CSUs charge in-state students by semester or quarter, except that students with 6 credits or fewer in a semester or quarter pay a lesser charge, while out-of-state tuition is charged by credit. UCs charge by semester or quarter.</p>
<p>Of course, even charges by credit do not necessarily reflect the cost of the course to the school. A 400 student freshman math or history lecture is likely a lot less expensive to the school per student than a 10 student senior or graduate level course that makes extensive use of lab or computer facilities.</p>
<p>Generally, there is a certain limit of credits you can take before being billed for overload credits. If you can graduate in three years without taking overload credits (e.g. if you have a ton of AP credits), you would just pay for three years worth.</p>
<p>Basically it saves a year of living expenses. I did this “back in the day”. I had some AP credits and took 2 courses each of two summers (which cost pretty much and ate up the tuition savings of the 4th year, basically). I took a huge load (no extra fees, though) 2nd semester 2nd year and 1st semester 3rd year.</p>
<p>Would taking courses during the summer be counted as a semester or quarter?</p>
<p>Summer courses are on the same system as the regular terms (summer quarter for quarter system schools, summer semester for semester system schools). </p>
<p>Summer terms are usually shorter than the terms during the rest of the year. Classes meet more hours per week in order to pack in the required number of hours. The pace can be very intense.</p>
<p>If you take the summer classes at a different school, you might need to get permission in advance. i.e. Penn accepted Vanderbilt classes but probably would not have accepted Tennessee State. Don’t forget that step!!!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>At quarter system schools, the summer session is usually a normal 10 week quarter. At semester system schools, the summer session is usually an approximately half length 8 week term in which a full load is half the number of courses or credits that one would take as a full load in a fall or spring semester.</p>
<p>How does it work at UC Berkeley, specifically? I want to go there. :)</p>
<p>Berkeley is on the semester system. While it has several different summer session terms (see [Courses</a> by Department | Berkeley Summer Sessions](<a href=“http://summer.berkeley.edu/courses/courses-list]Courses”>Classes by Subject | Berkeley Summer Sessions) ), most regular courses are offered during an 8 week term.</p>
<p>So a summer session at UCB is about half as long as a normal semester?</p>