I really depends on your school.
For my college, you would divide the payments into four different payments. My tuition was around 2000 usd (books included, for a 12 credit semester). Now, you can say, hey well that's not too bad. And yeah, it's not.. But the payment plan is paid within less than two months. It's gotta be paid in full by the middle of February.
I guess if you were able to do it, yeah.. it's easier than shelling out the cost all at once.
I didn't really need to worry about the cost, I make barely enough money to survive as it is. So the federal aid paid for it all (USA federal aid).
But each school is different.
You should get in contact with Administration and Billing, ask if you did part-time college if you can do a payment plan and how much it'd cost.