Manage College Costs
Maximize Your Credit Hours
As you create your plan to finance your college education, keep in mind that delayed graduation could increase the cost of your degree. An extra quarter or a fifth year can boost the total cost of your education by thousands of dollars. One way to avoid this additional cost is to maximize your credit hours.
A full-time package at DePaul University is based on 12-18 credit hours. So, taking 18 credit hours in a quarter costs the same as taking 12 credit hours per quarter. You can maximize the value of this by taking the maximum number of courses you can while still performing well in each.
For example, let's suppose you're a student in the College of Commerce or College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. Based on the 2006 tuition rates, found here, the cost per credit hour is $405 or $1,620 for a 4-hour course.
If you were to take 16 credit hours every Fall, Winter, and Spring quarter, you would likely graduate in four years. However, if you were to take just 12 credit hours during these three quarters, it would take over five years to complete your degree and add an additional $29,280 in tuition and fees!
Credit Hour Comparison
Credit hours per quarter |
Number of quarters per year |
Time to graduate |
Additional cost |
|
16 |
3 |
4 years |
--- |
|
12 |
3 |
5 years and 1 quarter |
$29,820 |
Take the Quiz-
Graduating students have an average of $20,402 in combined education loan and credit card balances.
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Students double their average credit card debt-and triple the number of credit cards in their wallets-from the time they arrive on campus until graduation.
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University administrators state that they lose more students to credit card debt than to academic failure.
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Students double their average credit card debt-and triple the number of credit cards in their wallets-from the time they arrive on campus until graduation.
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Persons entering college are offered an average of 8 credit cards the first week of school.
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55% of college students acquire their first credit card during their first year of college, and 83% of college students have at least one credit card.
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45% of college students are in credit card debt, the average credit card debt being $3,066.
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Undergraduates students carry an average of three credit cards.
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66% of Americans don't pay off their entire credit card bill each month.
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20% of graduating college students have $10,000 or more in non-school related credit card debt.