Tuition for full-time undergraduates at Homewood will
increase 4.9 percent next year, the fourth year in a row
that the university has held the annual increase below 5
percent.
Tuition for 2005-2006 will be $31,620, up $1,480 from
this year's $30,140. That rate applies to the nearly 4,100
full-time undergraduates in the Krieger School of Arts and
Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering.
The board of trustees approved the new charges at its
December meeting, along with next year's tuition for all
other Johns Hopkins full-time and part-time programs.
At the direction of the trustees, the university has
moved in recent years away from the higher-percentage
tuition hikes of the 1970s, '80s and early '90s. Before the
fall of 1997, Homewood undergraduate tuition had increased
5 percent or more for 22 straight years. The increase was
10 percent or more seven times during those years.
More recently, the Homewood increase has exceeded 5
percent only in fall 2000 and the following year, when the
costs of operating the new Mattin Center and O'Connor
Recreation Center were built into the rate structure.
The university in fiscal year 2005 dropped to 12th in
tuition rate among a group of 18 peer institutions that
includes the entire Ivy League and universities such as
MIT, Stanford, Chicago, Duke and Georgetown. Overall, the
university was also below the median among this group,
ranking ninth, on total cost of attendance, tuition plus
room and board.
Provost Steven Knapp said that the deans had been
working hard to control tuition increases while at the same
time increasing financial aid and implementing the
recommendations of the Commission on Undergraduate
Education.
Fred Puddester, executive director of budget and
financial planning and analysis, said there continues to be
only modest variation in tuition levels among JHU's peer
institutions. He said that while tuition and room-and-board
charges have been increasing in nominal terms over the past
decade, real growth has been moderate over the period. Net
tuition has grown much more moderately, especially in real
terms, as financial aid has increased.
For many undergraduates, financial aid will cut the
actual cost of next year's education at Johns Hopkins to
well below the $31,620 figure. Ellen Frishberg, director of
student financial services, said that among Homewood
undergraduate families who qualify for financial aid, the
cost of attendance is typically half the tuition "sticker
price" for a median family. For students with family
incomes below $40,000, aid covers most of the cost of
attendance.
About 50 percent of Homewood undergrads will receive
some form of need-based aid, Frishberg said, with 40
percent receiving grant assistance from university funding.
Financial assistance from all sources--university funds,
federal grants and loans, and private or other aid--is
roughly $50 million.
The university also has been increasing the grant
portion of financial aid packages and reducing loans. Last
year's seniors graduated with an average $14,000 in student
loan debt, a number below the national figure.
Elsewhere in the university, full-time undergraduates
at the Peabody Conservatory will pay annual tuition of
$28,215 in the fall, up 4.5 percent from this year.
School deans have the ability to adjust tuitions based
on market conditions for programs other than full-time
undergraduate ones. For example, tuition for the part-time
doctoral program at the School of Nursing increased 6.8
percent, and the doctoral program at SAIS increased 6.9
percent. Despite the increase, the schools report that
tuition will remain competitive with peer institutions'.
Part-time undergraduate tuitions in Engineering,
Nursing and the summer program in Arts and Sciences will
increase by varying amounts, up to 7 percent.
Next year's tuition rates for each school and program
are available online at
webapps.jhu.edu/jhuniverse/information_about_hopkins/
facts_and_statistics/tuition_and_financial_aid.