Yale University announced today that undergraduate tuition and room and board for the 2002-03 academic year will total $35,370, an increase of 3.9 percent over the current term bill.
“The increase in the term bill will take effect this fall along with scheduled increases in undergraduate financial aid,” said President Richard C. Levin. “Yale College will continue to be able to provide an outstanding education while remaining accessible to all admitted students.”
Yale College tuition for 2002-03 will be $27,130 and room and board will cost $8,240. Tuition in the current year is $26,100 and the charge for room and board is $7,930.
Financial aid changes taking effect beginning next fall will reduce Yale College students’ expected contribution by $13,780 over four years, an average of $3,445 a year. Students on aid at Yale are asked to pay a share of the cost of their education through a combination of term-time earnings, summer earnings, and low-cost loans. The student share will be cut from $7,820 to $5,500 for freshmen and from $8,320-$10,420 to $5,900 for sophomores, juniors and seniors. The costs that family and student contributions cannot cover are funded by direct University grants.
Students will be able to meet the reduced contribution through whatever combination of loans and earnings they choose. To help Yale students who choose to work on campus, Yale this year raised the minimum student wage from $7 an hour to $9.
Yale estimates that its annual budget for financial aid grants to students in Yale College will rise by $6.3 million a year as a result of the reduced student contribution. Yale also expects the aid budget to increase by an additional $1.2 million as a result of an agreement it made this past summer with 27 other colleges and universities on common procedures for determining the total family contribution toward students’ college education. The overall $7.5 million increase in Yale’s financial aid budget would bring the total for Yale College to more than $34 million annually.
For the past 30 years Yale has admitted students without regard to their ability to pay for their education — a policy called “need-blind” admissions — and has met the demonstrated financial need of all admitted students. All financial aid offered by Yale is need-based.
The average annual scholarship grant from Yale to students on financial aid is currently $15,550 and the top grant is $31,700. Nearly 40 percent of Yale undergraduates receive financial aid from Yale.
