Undergraduate Fees to Rise 4.9%

Total yearly cost: $72,520

By W. Raymond Ollwerther ’71

Published April 26, 2019

1 min read

Princeton’s undergraduate tuition, room, and board will rise 4.9 percent for 2019–20, matching the percentage increase for the current academic year. The increase — part of a $2.3 billion operating budget adopted by University trustees in April — means a fee package of $69,020. An estimated $3,500 for books and personal expenses brings the total to $72,520.

The budget for undergraduate financial aid will grow by 7.2 percent to $187.4 million, the University said, with more than 60 percent of undergraduates receiving financial assistance. The average grant is expected to increase by 6.6 percent to about $57,100 next year. For families earning up to $65,000, the aid package generally covers the full cost of tuition, room, and board.

“We follow the simple but important principle that a Princeton education should be affordable and accessible to any family,” Provost Deborah Prentice said in a University statement. The University said its undergraduate fee package continues to be the lowest in the Ivy League.

For graduate students, research stipends will increase 3.1 percent and teaching stipends 2.7 percent. Graduate-housing rates will rise 3 percent.

The annual budget report from the Priorities Committee noted that competition to attract and retain the best faculty “remains intense.” It also said the University has not yet received clear guidance from the IRS on the recently enacted 1.4 federal percent tax levied on the net investment income of Princeton and a small number of other colleges and universities.

The endowment will provide $1.38 billion, or 57 percent, of next year’s operating budget.

1 Response

Norman Ravitch *62

5 Years Ago

Excessive Fees

Should student loan debt be forgiven? No. Universities which have raised fees and tuitions far above the rise of inflation over many decades have behaved like Mafia criminals; once the federal loan program was started and students could easily get loans, the schools found a way to dip into the public trough and raise salaries for administrators, coaches, publicists and favored professors while a proletariat of instructors works hard for a minimum of benefits and salaries.

No school is worth more than $10,000 per year. The schools should be forced to disgorge the monies they have stolen from the students, their families, and above all from the government. How a university dedicated allegedly to values and morals can have done this is beyond me. Princeton is not the worst, but it is bad enough. Administrators, who by the way do little good, should be ashamed.