Stanford raises undergraduate tuition 3 percent for the 2012-13 school year

By Kathleen J. Sullivan

The Stanford University Board of Trustees has approved a 3 percent increase in undergraduate tuition for the 2012-13 academic year.

Total undergraduate charges will increase to $54,506 for the 2012-13 academic year, including $41,250 for tuition and $12,721 for room and board.

Trustees also approved a 3 percent tuition increase for general graduate, graduate engineering and law students, a 3.5 percent increase for medical students, and a 3.8 percent increase for first-year MBA students.

Tuition provides half of Stanford's general funds budget. The remainder of the general funds budget comes primarily from investment income, which is expected to rise modestly in 2013, and indirect cost recovery from sponsored research activity, which is expected to decline slightly next year.

The general funds budget helps fund, among other things, the university's undergraduate financial aid program, salaries for faculty and staff, and the purchase of library books.

Leslie Hume, chair of the Board of Trustees, said the tuition increases would help the university meet the rising costs of salaries and health care. She noted that the 3 percent rise in undergraduate tuition was the lowest percentage increase in four decades – evidence that Stanford had tried to moderate the increase.

Hume emphasized that Stanford's need-based financial aid program for undergraduates ensures that a family's economic circumstances will not prevent a student from attending the university.

"Stanford has one of the most generous financial aid programs in the country and we remain strongly committed it," Hume said. "The diversity of our undergraduate student body reflects this commitment. This year, roughly one of every six students at Stanford is the first person in their family to attend a four-year college."

Under a Stanford program established in 2008, parents making less than $60,000 a year are not expected to pay tuition or to contribute to the costs of room and board and other expenses. Families making less than $100,000 a year do not pay tuition. Students are expected to pay a portion of their college costs from summer jobs and part-time campus jobs during the school year.

Stanford expects to provide $122 million in financial aid this year, compared with $66.5 million in 2007, the year before the program was established.

Stanford's financial aid program helps ensure that most Stanford undergraduates leave the Farm free of student loan debt. According to Karen Cooper, director of financial aid, 28 percent of the Class of 2011 graduated with student loans, and they owed an average of $16,458.

Charges for undergraduate education

Undergraduate tuition will increase 3 percent to $41,250 in 2012-13, compared with $40,050 this year.

Next year, total room and board charges will rise 3.5 percent to $12,721, including $7,323 for campus housing and $5,398 for meal plans. Currently, undergraduates pay $12,291 for room and board, including $7,012 for campus housing and $5,279 for meal plans.

Graduate tuition

General graduate tuition will rise 3 percent to $41,250 in 2012-13, compared with $40,050 this year.

The general graduate tuition rate for students taking 8 to 10 units also will rise 3 percent to $26,820 next year, compared with $26,040 this year.

The four-quarter terminal graduate registration (TGR) tuition, a special tuition rate for graduate students who have completed their coursework and are working on their dissertations, will rise 3 percent to $10,728 in 2012-13, compared with $10,420 currently.

Tuition for graduate students in the School of Engineering will increase 3 percent to $43,950 next year, compared with $42,660 this year.

Tuition at Stanford Law School will rise 3 percent to $48,870 in 2012-13, compared with $47,460 currently.

At the Graduate School of Business, current MBA students will pay $55,200 in tuition next year, the same amount they paid this year, under a program in which MBA students pay the same tuition during each of their two years of study.

Tuition for entering MBA students will rise 3.8 percent to $57,300 in 2012-13, compared with the $55,200 for the MBA class that entered last fall. (Students enrolled in PhD programs at the Graduate School of Business pay the same rate as general graduate students.)

At the School of Medicine, tuition will rise 3.5 percent in 2012-13 for all students under the new and old tuition plans. (The Medical School changed the structure of medical tuition in 2010-11.)

Under the new plan, tuition for incoming first-year MD students and current first- and second-year MD students will increase to $15,782 per quarter, and the research rate (quarters when they pursue full-time research) will be $3,157 per quarter.

Other continuing students still fall under the 2009-10 structure. Next year, their tuition will rise to $16,637 per quarter, and the research rate will be $2,494 per quarter.

Student health fee

The Campus Health Service Fee, a mandatory fee for all students on the main campus, will increase to $179 per quarter in 2012-13, compared with $173 per quarter this year.

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