Tuition bills on six-month terms, two quarters at a time, under either of two options. Subscription: one flat price for the term, take and finish as many courses as you can, which makes every extra completed course free at the margin and is the genuine expedite lever, especially across the CBE catalog where projects, not weeks, set the pace. Per-credit: roughly $322 per credit at the general rate, varying by term and load, with active-duty military at $167. Exact dollar figures render per program in the university's estimator, so confirm your own numbers with your rep, then apply the rule of thumb: heavy planned throughput favors subscription, a deliberately light load favors per-credit.
The decision math, laid bare
The subscription's value is entirely a function of your completion rate: finish many courses in the term and your effective per-credit cost collapses; finish two and you may have overpaid against the per-credit route. That makes the honest first question not "which price is lower" but "what will I actually finish in six months," and that answer depends on transfer position, work schedule, and, bluntly, whether the writing load has help behind it. Our pre-enrollment consult runs exactly this arithmetic, free: your program's remaining credits, your realistic monthly throughput both supported and solo, and the crossover point where subscription wins. Students who choose billing after that math stop guessing with thousands of dollars.
What the six-month term changes
- Billing is per term, not per quarter, so pacing decisions compound across two quarters at a time
- Under subscription, an idle month is purchased idleness; the expedite page exists to prevent exactly that
- Under per-credit, a failed course is its full price twice; the guarantee economics on the comparison page run from that number
- Military members: the $167 rate rewrites the whole comparison, run it before assuming subscription
- Knowledge Credit stacks with both: a $149 test-out beats any billing option for any course it can clear
Cost control that actually works here
Sweep credit first
Transfer averages run 24 credits for associate entrants and 81 for bachelor's; up to 67 percent of most programs can arrive as Knowledge Credit, per the admissions manual. Nothing inside a term saves what this saves before it.
Match billing to your honest pace
Subscription plus real throughput is the cheapest degree Rasmussen sells; subscription plus drift is the most expensive. Decide with the math, not the marketing.
Protect the term once it starts
Every completed course inside a subscription term is marginal-cost-free tuition; the desks exist to keep completion rates at plan, projects in 24 to 48 hours, exams prepped to the 78 line.
Never fund a retake
Whatever the billing option, a failed course is the one purchase with no upside; the guarantee's whole economics are built against it.
Choose billing with the math done
Send your program, credits done, and weekly reality. The crossover math comes back free, same day.
Sources and verification
Facts on this page come from official and independent sources, and anything that matters is worth checking against the originals:
- www.rasmussen.edu/student-experience/empowered-learning: Rasmussen's official Empowered Learning pages, source for the CBE project structure
- www.rasmussen.edu/tuition: official subscription and per-credit tuition published by Rasmussen
- www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/course-catalog: the official course catalog, source for grading scales and course codes
- www.hlcommission.org: Higher Learning Commission, the institutional accreditor
- www.ccneaccreditation.org: Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, the nursing accreditor
- apastyle.apa.org: APA Style, the official style authority behind the formatting rules