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The newspaper of The Johns Hopkins University February 28, 2005 | Vol. 34 No. 24
 
Trustees Set Tuitions for 2005-2006

Homewood increase is once more held below 5 percent

By Greg Rienzi
The Gazette

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.

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