Every year, our parents report that “saving money” is the #1 reason they are Homeschooling for College Credit. When your teen takes college classes before they’ve graduated from high school, you’ll have the opportunity to pay significantly less than that college’s “rack rate” tuition. Once your teen graduates high school, everyone pays full price.
Budget. Understanding costs is really important since it’s easy to mistake “expensive” for “transferable” or “best.” The cost of a college credit has nothing to do with whether it will meet your teen’s high school requirements, future college admissions requirements, or future degree requirements.
You might need to read that again…..
The cost of a college credit has nothing to do with whether it will meet your teen’s high school requirements, future college admissions requirements, or future degree requirements. Ok, good. Just making sure that was super clear.
As such, a good recommendation is to keep costs low until you have a solid plan underway. If your teen’s plans change or a course is failed, the sting is less when it doesn’t dent the budget.
College Costs Money, HS4CC Saves Money
The best part of setting your college credit budget in high school is your freedom to price shop. If your teen were enrolled in college as a college student, you’re locked into that college’s costs and your only options are scholarships, savings, working, or loans. When your teen is taking college classes in high school, you have zero restrictions. If you want to sign up for the most expensive classes or focus only on the lowest costs, it’s completely your choice.
Parents sometimes tell me that their local university charges X per credit for high school students, and that it’s too expensive. Good news! You don’t have to use your local university. Most dual enrollment programs offer online learning, so if your local university is too expensive, keep shopping. You might find a university across the country that has the same class for a fraction of the cost.
I started Homeschooling for College Credit nearly 13 years ago. Since day 1, my objective is to help you look at the cost of the degree as a whole, and whittle the cost and credits down to a manageable price. “Managable” is different for all of us, but to be sure, I’ve never encounted a college or university that we couldn’t whittle down at least a little! You can use these principles at every college.
Rack Rate
I use the term “rack rate” to help parents put costs in context. You may be familiar with the term “rack rate” as it applies to hotels. That’s the price they advertise, and that’s the price you’ll pay when you just show up and ask for a room, but most of us know there are deals and coupons available to us if we do a little digging ahead of time. College degrees work in a similar way, but with more zeros! If you just show up and pay the advertised price, your teen will pay the “rack rate” full-price tuition and fees. Sure, colleges might offer your student some scholarships or discounts, but I like to know exactly what I’m paying BEFORE we consider the program. Unlike a hotel, you CAN bring your price down by outsourcing as many courses as possible. If your teen enters college with 30 credits (1 year) already finished, you’re only left to figure out how you’ll pay for 3. Once you bring down the number of courses you’ll need at rack rate, you can start using scholarships, grants, and your savings to handle the costs of your remaining credits.
Dual Enrollment Pricing
Dual enrollment courses are the same courses your teen would take as a college student. This is not to be confused with public school dual enrollment which sometimes happens in a high school with other high school students and taught by high school teachers. Homeschooling for College Credit families take dual enrollment courses directly with a college. It’s important to know that the discount varies by college, and also by state, but helping families find dual enrollment programs is what we do best.
Stay or Go? PRO TIP: Use DE for Residency
Most dual enrollment students do not stay at the college to finish a degree, rather they transfer their earned credit into a target college after high school. There are many things to consider, but speaking strictly in terms of your budget, an advantage of staying with a college, is that you’ve taken course that count towards your teen’s residency requirement. The residency requirement is the number of courses the college requires you take with them in order to earn a degree. It’s typical for a residency requirement to be 25% – 50% of the degree. Since Homeschooling for College Credit families are probably also bringing in a lot of alternative credit, coupling it with dual enrollment gets you that much closer to the maximum savings. Take a look at this real example of how HS4CC parents can resourcefully plan to save at Liberty University.
Example: Liberty University
- Bachelor’s Degree requirement: 120 credits
- Residency requirement: 25% (30 credits)
- Transfer allowance: 75% (90 credits)
With those facts in hand, you can calculate a budget based on knowing that you have total control over the transfer allowance (up to 90 credits) and what you spend. Liberty, on the other hand, will control the residency credits at their current tuition rate. Currently, their online tuition is the lowest rate they offer $390 per credit.
At $390 per credit, you can calculate that you’ll spend a minimum of $390 x 30 credits because their residency requirement is 30 credits.
Residency requirement: 25% (30 credits) <– no control over cost- Transfer allowance: 75% (90 credits) <– total control over cost
As you can see in the breakdown above, it’s not the 90 credits that can break the bank, it’s the 30 credits at full rack rate. While you can hope for scholarships, you must budget for those 30 credits because that tuition will be the most expensive part of the degree.
This is where dual enrollment steps in and saves the day! Remember that dual enrollment courses meet a university’s residency requirement, so if you can take those courses for less than rack rate, you’ll reduce your costs.
Liberty University’s dual enrollment courses are approximately $180 per credit, which is saving over HALF the cost for each course you replace! A parent who resourcefully plans for their teen to take dual enrollment with Liberty and then STAY at Liberty, you can now control and reduce costs that were previously out of your control.
- Residency requirement: 25% (30 credits)
- 7 dual enrollment courses (21 credits) at 50% cost
- 3 college courses (9 credits) at rack rate
Using Alternative Credits
$3,000 to hit 90 credits.
When you use a Type 3 (ACE) or Type 4 (NCCRS) credits (see table below) you usually need to attend a university that has partnered with those sources. The good news is that there are several hundred colleges that are partners, the bad news is that there are several hundred that are not! When using ACE / NCCRS credits, many universities operate as “all or nothing” in their acceptance. Partner colleges and universities that eagerly accept ACE and NCCRS credits are generally expecting you to bring in large amounts of credit prior to enrollment.
For Homeschooling families, ACE and NCCRS credit can make a degree affordable.
As a rule of thumb, ACE or NCCRS partner colleges will accept as many as 90 well-planned credits (3 years), leaving about 30 residency credits (1 year) to complete via online or on campus classes. There are a lot of variations, but a good budget for this strategy is $3,000 for the first 90 credits and rack rate of $400/credit for the last 30 credits. You’ll pay cash (starting in high school) for the first 90 credits, and complete the last 30 after high school. After high school you’ll have access to financial aid, 529 savings, grants, employer tuition assistance, and scholarships. Using national averages, you would expect to pay $15,000 TOTAL for a degree this way.
Rough Numbers: What You’ll Probably Pay
- A typical college course is billed at 3 credits.
- A typical 2-year degree requires 60 college credits.
- A typical 4-year degree requires 120 college credits.
| College Type | The price you’ll probably pay during high school DUAL ENROLLMENT | Price you’ll probably pay after high school at RACK RATE |
|---|---|---|
| Any community college | $0/credit – $100 per credit | $141 per credit |
| Any public university in-state tuition | $0/credit- $250 per credit | $390 per credit |
| Any public university out-of-state tuition | $0/credit – $250 per credit | $1,200 per credit |
| Any private university | $0/credit – $600 per credit | $2,400 per credit |
