By: Laura Kelly and Adam Croft
Sam Streeter, a UW student currently enrolled in summer courses, is surprised by how much he has to pay for one three-week class.
“The course is so short, it’s three and a half weeks,” Streeter said. “In comparison to the fall semester, I felt like I had a whole lot more time to soak in material, and I had quality time with the professors. I don’t have that in the summer.”
Streeter also said he felt like his professor this summer was “absolutely maxed,” with too many students needing assistance in a small amount of time. Because of this, Streeter said he thought his summer course was overpriced.
“Maybe that discrepancy could be compensated for with slightly reduced tuition in the summer,” Streeter said.
Miguel Rosales, senior project coordinator for summer and winter sessions, said tuition is the same, regardless of whether or not a class is taken in the summer or during the spring or fall semesters.
Rosales explained that the cost per credit hour for resident students is $113, and for nonresident students it is $454. For residents, that cost is the same for outreach programs, but for nonresidents, it is much cheaper than their campus credit cost. However, Rosales said the outreach cost for nonresidents would be going up.
For Streeter, however, the difference in value is not because of tuition. Streeter said the real reason his summer course seems so expensive is because he, like every other summer student, has to pay a flat rate for student fees, rather than a rate per credit.
“For us students taking three credits like me, we get nailed for fees,” Streeter said.
While Streeter may feel he is getting a bad deal, Rosales said the amount students have to pay in fees is cheaper per credit hour than what it totals out to during the normal semester.
Rosales also said coming tuition increases passed by the board of trustees last fall will raise the cost per credit for residents to $119. For nonresidents, the tuition hike will raise the cost per credit to $477.
