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| Posted 04.04.08 |
Tuition to Increase by 5 Percent, Grant Aid by 7.5 Percent
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Wesleyan University will increase its fees by 5 percent for the 2008-2009
academic year. The increase, equal to the lowest percentage increase in
seven years, is attributable to growth in salary and benefits costs, as well
as energy and other costs that outpace general inflation. The Board of
Trustees approved the fee increase at its meeting on March 1.
Tuition will be $38,364 for all students in 2008-2009. For freshman and
sophomores, the residential comprehensive fee will be $10,636. For juniors
and seniors, the fee will be $12,088. The higher residential comprehensive
fee for juniors and seniors reflects the higher cost of the options
available to them. Juniors and seniors have access to apartments and houses
in addition to residence hall rooms. They also have greater flexibility in
dining options.
The university's financial aid expenditures are projected to increase 7.5 percent to
offset the fee increase for students receiving aid. The increase also will
support the first year of an initiative to eliminate loans for Wesleyan's
neediest undergraduates and replace these with additional grants, as well as
to substantially reduce overall student borrowing.
Beginning with the first-year class enrolling in the fall of 2008, most
students whose total family incomes are $40,000 per year or less will
receive an aid package that substitutes grants for any loan obligation.
Beginning with the same class, all other students who receive aid will
graduate with a four-year total loan indebtedness reduced by an average of
35 percent. Aid packages will include a single student loan, the federally
subsidized Stafford Loan. The interest rates for Stafford Loans are among
the lowest available. Wesleyan will raise endowment sufficient to fund the
$3.2 million annual cost of this initiative.
Wesleyan admits students without regard to their financial circumstances and
then provides a financial aid package that meets each student's full
demonstrated need. Forty percent of its 2,900 students currently receive
grant aid. The average grant in 2007-2008 is $27,151. Wesleyan currently budgets $35.4 million of its own resources annually for grant aid for undergraduates.
"Each Wesleyan family makes a significant investment on behalf of our
students, and so does the university," says Wesleyan President Michael Roth.
"We are doing everything possible to use our resources efficiently and
responsibly and to maximize the funding available to ensure that students
from all backgrounds have access to a Wesleyan education. One of our highest
priorities in the next campaign will be to endow financial aid and
need-blind admission more fully." |
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