Board of Trustees approves tuition rate hikes

By Ray Delgado

The Board of Trustees on Tuesday set rates for tuition, room and board for the 2005-06 academic year that represent a combined 4.5 percent increase over the current year's rates for undergraduates.

The undergraduate tuition rate was set at $31,200, a 4.5 increase from $29,847 this year. The standard undergraduate room rate rose 5.3 percent, from $5,012 to $5,276. Standard board increased 3.7 percent, from $4,488 to $4,656.

Stanford is one of the few private universities with a need-blind admission policy that accepts students regardless of their ability to pay. The money the university collects from tuition covers only 60 percent of the costs of educating an undergraduate. Additionally, 46 percent of undergraduate students receive some form of need-based financial aid from the university.

Board of Trustees Chair Burt McMurtry also noted that the university's financial aid plan remains one of the strongest in the country.

"When we set tuition and financial aid funding, we pay careful attention to maintaining the affordability of Stanford for students from all financial backgrounds," McMurtry said. "Our data shows that Stanford's financial aid program is achieving this core goal."

Tuition for terminal graduate students—doctoral candidates who have completed all coursework and degree requirements except the dissertation—increased 4.4 percent to $10,440. Part-time graduate tuition rose 4.5 percent to $20,370.

Tuition rates for graduate engineering students and law students rose 4.5 percent, while School of Medicine tuition rates rose 5.45 percent. Tuition rose 8.8 percent for entering students and 5.8 percent for second-year students in the Graduate School of Business.

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