Grad School
I started my grad school program in January of 2003 and finished in May 2005.
Here’s the progression of the cost of (1) 3-credit hour class at purdue. This assumes the “streaming video” option, meaning that you “attend” class via watching the lectures over the internet at your convenience.
2003 - $1598 a class ( $533 per credit hour )
2004 - $2144 a class ( $714 per credit hour )
2005 - $2377 a class ( $792 per credit hour )
Today (2006) - $2845 a class ( $948 per credit hour )
Wowza, that sure is a hefty increase. Almost 100% increase in tuition in just 3 years.
I’m glad I got it over with when I did.
June 16th, 2006 at 3:37 am
How the hell do they justify even $533 per credit hour?
Their costs per hour do not have a linear growth with online courses. They can pack in many students.
June 16th, 2006 at 5:38 am
Exactly. The only physical service the school provides is the provision of a teaching assistant who is there to answer questions and grade papers. It also covers the cost of mailing things to the student, be it lecture notes or just the tests for the class. The proctoring for tests isn’t provided - you have to set that up yourself with someone at your company.
So basically if there were 20 offsite students (note that all of these were “real” classes with students sitting listening. They simply record the lectures and notes for us “remote” students) that’s almost $60,000 for just providing real video of the class!