How Tuition is Determined
How we do it:
Tuition charges are based on the total number of Credit and Excess Contact Hours the student
will have with an instructor or staff person through both lecture and laboratory time. Each
Credit/Excess Contact Hour is equal to 15 hours in a semester. To calculate the total number of
hours in a given course, add the lecture hours to the lab hours. In the example below, lecture and
lab hours are located at the end of the course description in parentheses (30-30). Excess contact
hour fees are less than credit hour fees.
For Example:
Course Number BIO 130W 3 Credits earned
Course Description
Prerequisite: READING LEVEL 3 and WRITING LEVEL 3. Introduces the principles and
concepts of chemistry and cell biology for students entering allied health curricula. Includes
basic math for science, the laws of thermodynamics, theory of atomic structure, chemical
bonding, acids, bases, and buffers; introduction to organic chemistry, cell structure and
function, basic metabolic pathways, mitosis, meiosis, classical and physiological genetics.
Recommended as a preparatory class for BIO 140 and BIO 152 for students with limited
background in cell biology and/or chemistry. (30-30)
Therefore:
 BIO 130W has a total of 60 hours (Lecture Hours: 30 and Lab Hours:30)
 60 hours ÷ 15 = 4 total hours, for 3 transcript credit hours and 1 excess contact hour
 Tuition charges for an in-district resident student (2014-5015) would total: $336.10
($91.70 x 3 credit hours = $275.10 plus $61.00 x 1 excess contact hour).
Why do we do this?
Charging for Excess Contact Hours fairly distributes tuition costs to students for the amount of
instruction time they receive. For example, a student taking a class without a lab component has
less contact time with an instructor or staff person than a student in a BIO 130W class with a lab.
Why aren’t all of the excess contact hours we’re paying for showing on our transcripts?
Think of it like homework. Every course requires additional time out of class for homework and
other projects. Students don’t receive credit hours for all of the time spent on homework. Think
of Excess Contact Hours as time spent doing work for the course with an instructor or staff
person to supplement the course. Also, there are national standards that must be followed in
determining the amount of credit earned for a course. Violating these national standards would
affect the transferability of the course to other colleges and universities.