Yale announces 2024-25 term bill, reaffirms financial aid commitments

Yale College on Jan. 31 announced the term bill for the 2024-2025 academic year and reaffirmed its commitment to make an undergraduate education at Yale affordable to all students and their families through its need-based financial aid program.

The Yale College term bill, which includes tuition, housing, and meals, will increase by 3.9% from $83,880 to $87,150. Tuition will be $67,250, and housing and meals for students who live on campus will be $19,900.

Need-based financial aid for returning Yale College students always increases in lockstep with any increase in the term bill, said Kari DiFonzo, director of undergraduate financial aid. “If a family’s financial circumstances stay the same, their net cost will stay the same,” said DiFonzo, adding that additional Yale scholarship funds cover increased term-bill costs for aided families.

Jeremiah Quinlan, dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid, reported that the undergraduate financial aid budget for the 2023-24 academic year was $241 million — a figure that has more than tripled since the 2007-08 academic year, when Yale launched the first of several major enhancements to its undergraduate financial aid policy. (View a timeline of Yale’s financial aid policy updates below.)

During that same 16-year period, the percentage of Yale undergraduates receiving need-based aid increased from 42% to 53%. Because Yale College also increased enrollment during that period, there are now 59% more financial aid recipients compared with 2007. Between 2006 and 2020, the average price paid by the families of Yale students receiving financial aid fell 17% in nominal dollars and by 35% when adjusted for inflation.

“I am proud that Yale is one of only a small handful of institutions that meet 100% of all families’ demonstrated financial need without requiring students or parents to take out loans, with consistent policies for all students regardless of citizenship or immigration status,” said Quinlan.  

Every family whose income and assets demonstrate that they cannot afford the full cost of attendance receives a Yale financial aid offer with a Yale Scholarship grant. More than 3,500 undergraduates currently receive financial aid from Yale, with an average Yale grant of more than $66,000 — an amount that exceeds the current cost of tuition.

Yale College does not expect parents earning less than $75,000 annually — with typical assets — to make any contribution toward the cost of their child’s education. The financial aid offers for these families, which are known as zero parent share offers, cover the full cost of all billed expenses — tuition, housing, the meal plan, and hospitalization insurance — as well as travel to and from New Haven.

While there is no income cutoff for financial aid eligibility, families with incomes below $150,000, on average, are not asked to pay tuition for their students’ education. Some families with over $200,000 in annual income receive significant need-based aid from Yale. Scholarship grants range from a few thousand dollars to more than $80,000 per academic year. All financial aid offers are based entirely on a family’s demonstrated financial need.

For nearly 60 years Yale has considered applications for admission without regard for a prospective student’s ability to pay — and has met the full demonstrated financial need of all students. Over the past 16 years, Yale has enhanced its financial aid policies more than a half-dozen times. In 2022 the Provost’s Financial Aid Working Group approved $2.5 million in new annual investments to reduce what many middle-income families are expected to contribute from assets. Previous policy changes include:

2008:  Yale reduces the average costs for families on aid by more than 50%; increases scholarships to eliminate loans from financial aid offers; and sets parent share at zero for families making less than $60,000 annually

2010: Yale raises the threshold for zero parent share offers to $65,000 in annual income

2016: Yale reduces student share levels by 15% and creates $2,000 supplemental “startup grants” for low-income students with zero parent share offers

2018: Yale further enhances zero parent share offers with hospitalization insurance coverage and a reduction in the student share

2020: Yale raises threshold for zero parent share offers to $75,000 and further reduces the student share to $3,700 for students with these offers

2021: Yale invests an additional $3 million annually to reduce student share level to $3,700 for all students receiving financial aid

Prospective students and their families can get an estimate of their Yale cost, accounting for financial aid, in just a few minutes using Yale’s Quick Cost Estimator, at the Yale Undergraduate Admissions website.