Here's What A Single Course Costs A 4-Year Student At The Most Expensive Colleges In The US

This summer, Business Insider compiled a list of the most expensive colleges in the US.

The list is based off each school’s tuition, fees, and room and board for the 2014-2015 school year.

We took the top 12 colleges from that list and broke down the costs to find out how much just one course will set you back.

Here’s how we did it:

We took the tuition for each school — not including fees or room and board — and multiplied that number by 4 to find out how much it costs to graduate on a standard four-year schedule.

We then figured out how many courses a student needs to take to receive a degree at each university by looking at each school’s website and determining the number of credits needed to graduate, then reading the course catalogue to find the number of credits for a typical course.

We divided the cost to graduate by the number of courses needed, giving us the cost of a single course. (The credit number we used to represent a typical course is specified for each university.)

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Bear in mind that every school and every student is different. 

Many students attending these schools receive scholarships and/or financial aid, which lowers the cost of tuition. They may spend a semester or year abroad, and pay a different school tuition. They may graduate early.

And since course and credit requirements often differ according to major, the number of courses needed to graduate can vary from student to student. Plus, a course for more than a typical number of credits will be less expensive, while a course for fewer credits will cost more.

Our calculations can’t possibly match every individual’s college experience, but they do help quantify how much every A, B, or C costs for a full-time student paying sticker price at a four-year school.

We found it interesting that this list does not follow the order of our list of most expensive universities. A course at the most expensive school, Harvey Mudd College, actually costs less than many others.

This is because courses at some schools — like the most expensive on the list — count for more credits, meaning that students have to take fewer courses to graduate. The fewer courses a student has to take, the more a single course is going to cost.

This post has been updated to reflect the fact that University of Chicago full time undergraduate students attend school for three quarters each year, and not four. 

12. University of Chicago

Tuition for 4 years: $ 188,556

Number of courses needed to graduate: 42

Units of credit per course: 100

Cost per course: $ 4,489

Note: The University of Chicago uses a quarter system in place of semesters.

11. Harvey Mudd College

Tuition for 4 years: $ 193,260

Number of courses needed to graduate: 43

Credits per course: 3

Cost per course: $ 4,494 

10. Trinity College

Tuition for 4 years: $ 187,184

Number of courses needed to graduate: 40

Credits per course: .50-1

Cost per course: $ 4,679

Note: At Trinity, students need 36 course credits to graduate. Therefore, the standard amount of course credit taken per semester is 4.5. Since courses range from .25-2 credits, we assumed a student would take four 1-credit courses and one .5-credit course per semester (five courses in total per semester). Five courses per semester would amount to 40 courses in total needed to graduate.

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Here's What A Single Course Costs A 4-Year Student At The Most Expensive Colleges In The US