<p>When a college says that the tuition fee is X dollars per year (lets say 30,000), is that the amount I will have to pay irrespective of the number of courses I take? i.e. Will I have to pay more than 30,000 dollars if I take more courses than average per semester?</p>
<p>Usually, that is based on being a "full time" student which is defined as taking a minimum number of credits, not a maximum. If you are below the minimum, you are considered a part time student and usually pay by the credit, which is more expensive per credit than the cost per credit if you are a full time student Some schools do have a limit on the max. So, for example, a school can require a minimum of 12 credits (4 courses) to be considered full time but limit a student to a max of 19 credits per semester.</p>
<p>I'm going to be a full time undergrad student.
So you're saying that for full time students there is generally a minimum number of courses and also a maximum number of courses, and as long as the number of courses I take falls within this range, I will need to pay 30,000 dollars (say).</p>
<p>For example, we can consider the case of UChicago (one of the colleges I've applied to)</p>
<p>Yes, that's generally the way it works. Annual tuition is based on full time status and schools define full time status based on taking a defined minimum number of credits. Fall below the minimum and you are considered part time and pay by the credit. Take above the minimum and you pay the same annual tuition but there may be a cap on the number of credits a student is permited to take per semester. In general, the range is 4 - 6 courses. This can vary somewhat from school to school and sometimes from program to program at a particular school. You should scour the website and online academic policy manuals for the particular schools you are interested in to the scoop at a particular school.</p>
<p>Well, although I realize that it would be very difficult to manage more than 6 courses, some of the colleges I have applied to have a pass/no record option for courses. I was wondering if I could take advantage of this option and take more courses.</p>
<p>Last I heard Chicago is on the quarter system</p>
<p>At U Chicago, you can take 3 or 4 courses each quarter and pay the same tuition.</p>
<p>1 Course: 4669
2 Courses: 7891
3 or 4 Courses: 11112
5 Courses (need special permission to do so): 14335</p>
<p><a href="http://collegeaid.uchicago.edu/cost.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://collegeaid.uchicago.edu/cost.shtml</a></p>
<p>i dont think anyone could manage more than 4 courses per quarter at uof chicago... each of their quarters is 3 months( i.e they are really trimesters plus the summer) so there's plenty of time to tkae lots of courses :0</p>
<p>I emailed my question to both Cornell and Chicago. The response I got from Cornell is as follows:</p>
<p>Students will typically take between 30-38 credits a year at Cornell; however, we have had students who will go above and beyond the average. We do not charge extra for students who go above 18 credits/semester; however, they must gain approval from their advisor if they go beyond 24 credits a semester.</p>