Credit Hours/Tuition. Waiver

[Calorific]

Hi all,

So I'm new to this US education credit Hours thing. I recently got an admission with a waiver of $1500 per semester for a total of 3 semesters making $4500 in total. They also stated that out-of-state tuition was $1250 per credit hour.

Exactly what does a credit hour mean and how does it translate to my fee status?

I am an international student and my fee classification before an I-20 can be issued runs upwards of $44000 though tuition is only about $12000-17000.

I will be glad to be educated on all of these.

Thank you!

[TheGirlWhoLived]

You need to have so many credits to graduate. A class will be worth so many credits (typically 3), and you will usually take somewhere around 3 classes a semester. So you would probably have something like 9 credit hours a semester. I'm not sure what you mean by fee status though. 

[TakeruK]

In North America, many schools charge tuition based on how many courses you take rather than a "flat rate" (although most graduate programs do the flat rate thing, not tuition by "credit hour"). So, if you take more classes you pay more, if you take fewer, you pay less!

 

Like TheGirlWhoLived said, there will be a certain number of credit hours (or just "credits") you need before you finish a degree program. The way each school determines "credits" really depends on the school. Most places charge/grant one "credit hour" for each hour of in-class or lab time you have in the course, which is typically 3. However, my school considers "1 credit" = 1 hour of work spent on the course, including homework etc., so most courses here are "9 credits". The last school I was at considered 1 year-long, 3 hour per week course to be 1.0 credits, so most of my courses were 0.5 credits. 

 

So, you can look up how many credits you must take per year and multiply by $1250 to get an estimate of your tuition cost. But you also said that tuition is between $12,000-$17,000 per year, so that's probably the right estimate (if so, then it sounds like you have to take between 8 to 14 credit hours per year, give or take). 

 

But, it also sounds like you already have a number that you must meet: $44,000. I think this sounds pretty reasonable. The I-20 amount is usually much more than tuition (unless you are at a place where tuition is very high) because it accounts for estimated living expenses, student fees on top of tuition, and books etc. If your school is telling you that you must show proof of $44,000 of funds, and you only have a tuition waiver of $4500, then you must show bank accounts that have at least $39,500 in them. But if you have a funded offers (e.g. fellowship, TA, RA, etc.) then this money counts towards the minimum too, so if you have a TA/RA offer for $30,000/year, then you only need to show savings with $9,500 etc.

[Calorific]

Wow, thanks TakeruK. You are a god among men!