Hi Misa,
Are you sure that if you take 3 courses/semester you don't pay according to the number of courses taken but pay the full tuition. I have called the department yesterday and they said that we only need to pay for the number of courses taken. For example, I plan to finish MS in 3 semesters, 3+3+2 courses. By taking 3 courses per semester the first year (the first 6 courses) and the last 2 courses the third semester. They said that according to this plan I will pay 6 x ~5K/course for the first 6 courses in the first year, and 2 x ~5K/course for 2 courses the next year. But according to what you said it looks like 38K/year for the first 6 courses in the first year, and 2 x ~5K/course for 2 courses the next year. This makes a big difference. Are you sure about your plan1?
Thanks..