The tuition increases are pushing the cost to attend the nation's elite universities well into the $300,000s over four years, and the schools are continuing to raise tuition costs amid high inflation.At Yale University, tuition increased by 4%, and Brown University increased tuition by 5%, as did Dartmouth. The increases have pushed the combined total of tuition and room and board to attend Brown up to $84,828 and $83,880 to attend Yale.
“At some point, that math stops working out,” American Enterprise Institute higher education economist Beth Akers told Bloomberg."We get to a place where these degrees are just no longer worth it.”Tuition, fees, and room and board at Cornell University check in at $84,568, the University of Pennsylvania is charging $84,570, and the price tag to attend Dartmouth is $84,300.
Harvard and Princeton lag a bit behind their counterparts, with Harvard having a list price of $76,763 and Princeton $76,040.In 2000-2001, the average total cost of attending a private university, tuition plus room and board, was $22,401. By the 2021-2022 school year, private institutions nationwide were charging an average of $51,690.
The increase in college costs has coincided with an explosion in student loan debt. By 2021, students graduated with an average of $31,100 in student loan debt.