I had to call CCD yesterday to ask them why I hadn’t heard back about my application from two weeks ago.
Apparently there was so mix-up with my personal information, and they thought I hadn’t completed my application when I in fact had. Fortunately, one phone call got it all sorted out, and I have registered for Accounting 101.
Before class starts on Thursday, January 20, 2011, I have to:
Submit my unofficial transcript from my undergrad work to excuse myself from CCD’s placement test.(I faxed this off this morning.)- Figure out how much one course (3 credit hours, plus books) is going to cost me.
- Contact that financial aid office to determine if there is a payment plan I can sign up for, so I can spread the cost of this one course over the semester, instead of paying it all upfront.
- Figure out how much we can save between now and and determine how much, if any, student loans I will need for this first round of classes.
The Cost of the Course
Based on the calculations I did in my initial post about attending community college, three credit hours at CCD will cost me $508.60.
I looked up the books I need for this class on the online syllabus (this may be updated before classes start, so I’ll have to check back), and this is what it showed:
College Accounting — 10th Edition, $76 – $130 (New), $47 – $56 (Used), $45 (130 day rental), $75 (eBook) | ||
College Accounting Working Papers with Study Guide, $48 – $56 (New) |
From previous college experience I know that buying the textbook used is fine (better, really), but buying the workbook used isn’t an option.
So, best-case scenario, books for this Accounting 101 class would cost ~$110 (plus or minus shipping).
Total cost: $618.60
Payment Plan Options at CCD
I am very impressed with CCD’s online interface. Without ever having to pick up a phone last night, I was able to figure out that I have the option to set up 5 monthly payments (starting January 5th, 2012) of $101.72 to automatically debited from my checking account or credit card. That’s pretty neat, and makes this project much more affordable w/o taking out loans than if I had to pay the full $508.60 + books up front.
So it looks like we’ll need to have $100 saved for tuition by January 5th, and $110 saved for books by 2 weeks before class starts (January 6th) in order to account for shipping time.
I think that’s pretty do-able.