Financial Aid Up 8.5%

Undergraduate tuition, room, and board will increase 4.1 percent for 2014–15 as part of a $1.6 billion operating budget approved Jan. 25 by the trustees. The University said that even with the increases, Princeton’s costs of about $58,940 will be about $800 below the fees currently charged by its peer schools.

Financial aid is projected to increase 8.5 percent to $131.6 million; currently about 60 percent of undergraduates receive aid. (The projected average aid package for next year’s freshmen is $42,700.) Graduate tuition will increase 4.1 percent to $41,820, and housing fees for grad students will rise 3 to 4 percent. Grad-student stipends will increase 3.5 percent.

Unlike Yale University, which faces a significant deficit and anticipates layoffs, Princeton is projecting a modest operating deficit that it expects to fill from its reserves. “We continue to operate in a post-recession, ‘new-normal’ mode,” said Provost David S. Lee *96 *99. “We cannot expect the same rates of future growth that we enjoyed before 2008.”

The budget, which calls for a 3.6 percent increase in spending, includes $600,000 in additional resources for priority initiatives such as student training regarding sexual misconduct, six free meals a semester for graduate students who do not live at the Graduate College, and enhancements in technology and social media.

The endowment is expected to contribute $789 million to the budget, up 5.4 percent from this year.

A hundred years ago, Princeton’s tuition was $160, while buying the country’s most popular car, the Model T, would set you back three times that. Today a top-selling car goes for two-thirds of a year’s tuition.  Compiled by Jennifer Shyue ’17

Getty Images (Model T)