American colleges and universities finally crack the $100,000 per year barrier

When will the first American college or university cost more than $100,000 per year to attend?

I first raised this question back in 2018.  I was studying higher education finances, doing some basic extrapolations, and wondered about the possibility of an upcoming six figure price as a milestone.  Would campus pricing continue to rise to that level?  If so, when would the first institution breach it?  How might academics and the broader world respond?

After raising the question I have followed it up fairly regularly ever since, with blog posts in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.  With each entry I checked in with a group of campuses and their published prices.  I developed a forecast, honing it over time, of the most expensive universities crossing over the $100,000/annum barrier around the 2026-2027 academic year.

It looks like I was one year late.  Because two American campuses just broke that barrier, for the 2025-2026 academic year.  And so far it hasn’t caused a ruckus.

Before I go further, a word of background. The six figure price might be astonishing, but remember that only a handful of campuses would – will – charge anything near that price. The lion’s share of American colleges and universities post lower, usually far lower amounts.  Moreover, the widespread practice of tuition discounting means a lot of students attending that handful of highly-priced schools don’t pay the full price.  Grants, scholarships, work-study, etc. cut down what a good number of students actually end up paying. No, our focus today is on a sliver of the academia – but a disproportionately influential one, and perhaps a group which tells us something about higher education as a whole.

I’m also focusing on undergraduate, residential education.  These leaves off commuters who don’t pay housing, although they pay for their own in some way. It also doesn’t include graduate schools, which often charge more for tuition, although rarely have a residential component.

So what just happened?

A few months ago Wellesley College (private, liberal arts, Massachusetts) posted their 2025-2026 “Tuition and Cost” page.  It breaks down prices for services a student would engage, including tuition ($69,800), housing ($11,520), meals ($10,776), a student activity fee ($344), and health insurance ($4,051). That page then estimates prices for additional and very likely expenses incurred when living on campus for that time: books ($800), personal expenses ($1,250), and travel/transportation ($0 to $2,000).  If we accept all of those figures for now, and assume the full 2K transportation figure and that a student doesn’t forego medical insurance, the total is $100,541. Inside Higher Ed summed it up: “Wellesley now appears to be the most expensive college in the country.”

(We could take issue with some of these numbers. Perhaps a student saves money living off campus, lucks out with professors assigning a lot of open educational resources instead of pricy textbooks, skips health insurance or gets it some other way, and somehow travels for free.  Alternatively, prices could well be higher if the student has to buy high end materials, travels over the 2K cap, or spends more on food.  For now let’s use the posted numbers.)

Similarly, around 20 miles away Tufts University (private research university) posted their undergraduate cost of attendance for the upcoming year.  Under “Costs Paid to the School” we find tuition ($71,982), housing ($10,660), food ($8,906), and unspecified fees ($1,634). Next, under “Out-of-Pocket Expenses (Costs Paid to Others) for All Students” stand books and supplies ($1,000) and personal expenses ($1,846).   Transportation doesn’t get a dollar amount, as they prefer this explanation:”Varies, based on how far from Tufts a student’s home is.”  Tufts has health insurance on a separate page, where we learn that “[t]he cost of the individual student plan is… estimated to be $4693 in 2025-2026.” I total this up at $100,721.  Again, we can adjust numbers slightly. On the upward side, Tufts mentions that campus housing is $1928 more for juniors and seniors, and transportation costs are going to be something for many students.

In other words, we’ve established two campuses broke the six figure barrier, based on their own published numbers. It’s something of a historical moment. On a personal note I was gratified that some journalists turned to my blog work on this topic, citing it or interviewing me.

So why does this matter?  For one, while the campuses noted above are financial outliers, they are not entirely alone.  Other colleges and universities seem to be pressing close behind them.  Here’s a chart from Boston’s Business Journal, looking at the most expensive schools in just that state:

We can find institutions pushing towards the six figure milestone across the nation.  Let’s check back on the leaders from prior posts.  Colorado College estimates $99,035 for students who accept their health insurance. Amherst College looks like $99,116. The University of Miami will charge $98,118. Harvey Mudd? $98,984. The University of Southern California? $99,139. Washington University estimates $97,995. Northwestern University: $96,236. Stanford University: $96,513. Wesleyan University: “$96,596 (frosh) / $96,296 (continuing students)”. New York University’s College of Arts and Science: $96,988. Vassar College: $96,668. Cornell University: “Total, (Billed + Non-Billed) $96,268.” The University of Pennsylvania: $95,612.  Brown University: $95,984. Vanderbilt looks around $93,000.  There are others.

Where does this take us next year?  Inflation right now stands at 2.7%. I’ll round academic price inflation to 3%, since we tend to run higher than consumer goods.  At that rate we might expect any institution charging around $97,500 or more to join Tufts and Wellesley in breaking the six figure barrier, like Amherst, Colorado College, Harvard, Harvey Mudd,  Smith, University of Miami, University of Southern California, and Washington University. Others might as well, of course, depending on individual circumstances and if general inflation ticks upward.  We shouldn’t be surprised to see a dozen or more schools in the six figure club by spring 2026.

Second, these top-level prices remind us that the wealthiest families tend to get even richer.  Some of them pay full freight and can do so because their financial situations are accelerating away from the rest of ours.  American academic financial structures reflect (and to an extend contribute to) our escalating income and wealth inequality.

Third… to be honest, I thought breaking the six figure threshold would cause a stir.  Americans can be very price sensitive. Our culture has an unhealthy obsession with the economic elite. And polling shows the nation to be concerned about college costs.  As one thoughtful Canadian observer, Stephen Downes, wrote: “The survey paints a picture of an education system that has gone very wrong, and is designed to preserve privilege rather than advance the interests of society.”

Yet apart from a few articles in the higher education, nonprofit, and business presses, respectively, Tufts and Wellesley didn’t cause any other ripples.  Perhaps we simply accept these new figures as an expression of an inflationary era. Maybe we’ve grown to expect elite campuses to charge elite prices. It could be we’re focused on what institutions charge, setting aside the other costs of residential study. Or, and I suspect this is more likely, most people haven’t heard.

Here’s how I concluded my last blog on this topic:

Perhaps we will grow accustomed to the six figure bracket, much as we accepted campuses charging above $90,000 without much complaint. Fees of $104,000 and up will simply express value.  Alternatively, six figures will become the new lazy river, a much-cited figure, then a cliche, symbolizing academic greed, waste, fecklessness, or whichever other feature the speaker wishes to evoke.

So far it looks like the former.

(thanks to Inside Higher Ed and Mark Ashwill for links and discussion; odometer photo by the great Cogdog)