Undergraduate tuition rises by 3.24 percent
Undergraduate tuition rises by 3.24 percent
MIT’s undergraduate tuition will increase by 3.24 percent for the upcoming academic year (2013-2014), according to an announcement made by the MIT Corporation last Friday.
This rise in undergraduate tuition is the lowest increase since 2000. Undergraduate tuition has increased dramatically since the start of this data series, in 2000, when tuition was only $25,000 per academic year. After this year’s 3.24 percent figure, the tuition increase from 2001 to 2002 was the next smallest, at 3.49 percent.
MIT has also planned to increase the budget allocated for financial aid for undergraduate students. The MIT News Office reports the size of the financial aid budget for the coming year to be around $97.6 million, the largest such annual total. This is also much larger than the corresponding value in 2000, which stood around $44.5 million.
Part of the large rise in tuition is MIT’s commitment to a tuition-free education for those with family incomes less than $75,000, the MIT News Office states. The increase in the financial aid budget was only 2.85 percent, however, meaning that financial aid increased more slowly than tuition.
While part of the rise in financial aid may be committed to decreasing the net payment, some of the increase must be attributed to the dollar inflation. Additionally, while the total financial aid budget increased, MIT’s class sizes have also increased consistently over the years, meaning that the aid funds must be spread over more students.
—Tushar Kamath