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I was told by someone that all community colleges are actually free past 12 credits (i.e. you only pay for 12 credits, the rest of the credits you take are free.). Let's say you take 20 credits total, you only pay for 12. Is this true everywhere, even online and out of state (which is sometimes the case). If I were to take a course from an out of state college since they're the only one with the program course I want, I'd end up doing the online thing. So does the over 12 credits free apply in this scenario?
Now more than ever, colleges all have their own methods of calculating tuition.
The closest to what I think you are explaining is schools where you pay a 'full time' rate instead of per credit hour when you are enrolled full time. This will be good up to so many credit hours- 12, 15, 18, etc... You will be charged a discounted rate for each additional credit hour beyond the full time rate.
It used to be true at universities, IDK about CC's. But now, with the loss of state funding to higher education, including CC's, they need to charge for everything, that's my impression. You may find a CC system in a few states that charge only for the standard full-time course load of 15/16 credits, and everything over that's a freebie, but most CC's these days charge per credit that you sign up for. Like buying items in a store; if you buy over a dozen, you don't get the ones that are over the specially-priced dozen for free.
The other thing is, OP, that since 15/16 credits is considered full-time, many schools require you to get permission from someone to take an overload. A Dean's office, or some other authority. You may not be able to register for more than 16 credits without some kind of official "OK".
It used to be true at universities, IDK about CC's. But now, with the loss of state funding to higher education, including CC's, they need to charge for everything, that's my impression. You may find a CC system in a few states that charge only for the standard full-time course load of 15/16 credits, and everything over that's a freebie, but most CC's these days charge per credit that you sign up for. Like buying items in a store; if you buy over a dozen, you don't get the ones that are over the specially-priced dozen for free.
The other thing is, OP, that since 15/16 credits is considered full-time, many schools require you to get permission from someone to take an overload. A Dean's office, or some other authority. You may not be able to register for more than 16 credits without some kind of official "OK".
This was true at both my CC and the university I currently attend. The cost of tuition this past semester (16 units) was the same as if I had taken the 12 units required to meet full-time student status. Once you reach the 12 unit threshold, you're good. However - each college has a cut off level for how many units per semester before requiring permission from the dean's office. I had a classmate who took 19 one semester, and another who was enrolled in 22. He stopped coming to class after the midterm.
This was true of my very expensive private college. You pay for the semester and that gets you anywhere from 12-18 credits; if you go over 18 there was an extra charge and if you go under 12 you’re better off electing to be part time.
I took some spare courses at a local community college and they charged per credit, so it wouldn’t have worked there.
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