Originally posted August 21, 2008

I’ve decided to go back to school and take a class called Engineering Hydrology. I picked the local state school because it should be cheaper than a private school. The photo below shows how much ONE class is costing me. I am paying just about the same amount in fees that I’m paying in tuition, which brings the total for the one class to just under $2300. Since this is a four hour class, it’s basically costing me $575 per credit hour, which is definitely in line with private schools. In fact, I just checked my old credit card statements and found, in 2006, the one class that I took at IIT only cost me $2076.

I realize that if I took more than one class the fees wouldn’t be such a large percentage of the bill. However, since I am working full-time, it’s highly unlikely that I’d be able to take three or four classes, which is what a full-time student would do. And it would even be rather difficult for me to take two classes. I wonder if I get to write-off the entire $2295 on my taxes or if only the tuition counts. I guess I’ll find out at tax-time.